fav poem

bush musketeer

Active member
A fav poem of mine

THE REAL ANZACS
There are plenty of slouch-hatted soldiers in town,
Doughty and debonair, stalwart and brown;
Some are from weymouth or sailsbury plain,
Others have "pushed" in the western campaign;
Call them "overseas soldiers" or "downunder men"
Declare that each is as daring as ten;
Call them cornstalks or fernleaves all out for a fight,
But dont call them ANZACS, for that isn't right.

The ANZACS, their ranks are scanty but all told,
Have a seperate record illuminated in gold;
Their blood on Gallipoli's ridges they poured,
Their souls with the scars of that struggle are scored,
Not many are left, and not many are sound,
And thousands lie buried in Turkish ground,
These are the ANZACS; the others may claim,
Their zeal and their spirit, but never their name.

by an unknown Aussie soldier
 
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An explanation please, or else your posts will be deleted and considered as spam!
 
extra info

thought i'd give you all a couple of reasons as to why its my fav poem.
1. i had five realitives that were original ANZACS, 3 at the landing on the first day in the infantry and 2 later when the light horse joined the fray.
2. the "illuminated in gold" reference refers to a small brass letter A which was only worn by men that had been at ANZAC, those that fought later on couldn't wear one.
3. out of the five 2 were killed at the battle of lone pine, and the other 3 were wounded , with two of the remaining three being killed in france, (the one that survived was only 16 at gallipoli)
 
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