Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AUSTRALIA IN LONDON, by WILLIAM ALEXANDER PERCY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AUSTRALIA IN LONDON, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Between the battle over
Last Line: We fought, as you, to be free.
Subject(s): Australia; Freedom; Kisses; London; Youth; Liberty


Between the battle over
And the battle just begun
They give six days to wander
And take their bit of fun
To the lads whose land lies under
The rays of the rising sun.

No English home is theirs,
They have no English friend --
Australia's uncivilized,
Squatters, you know, no end!
So up they come to London
Their bob a day to spend.

And a lad may spend it in the pubs,
Or girls are cheap as thought --
It's not the warmth of English beer
Or the harlot's kiss that's sought,
But those about to die have need
Of tenderness, though bought.

Between the battle over
And the battle not begun
They walk the streets of London,
Strangers, frowned upon.
Yet their eyes are grey with the light
Of the newly risen sun.

A wind from infinite skies
Ruffles always their hair,
And the look of the birds of the sun,
Lonely, disdainful, aware,
Is the look of their mouth and their eyes;
They are the dreamers who dare.

They bear no arms because they must,
They wage no conscript's war,
They fight for neither English king,
Nor tsar nor emperor;
They heard that freedom's cause was struck,
And freedom is their star.

Sons of the rising sun,
With swift un-English eyes,
Not fair with white and red,
But burnt by flaming skies,
And scornful with such youth
As, boasting, fights and dies!

Along the Strand they swing
With haversack and gun,
Their broad, brown hats caught up
One side as if in fun,
And at their tunic's throat
The sign of the rising sun.

And London furnishes,
Though pious-eyed, askance,
Her harlots and her pubs
To these whose very glance
Is sunlight, and who march
To-morrow into France.

To these so infinitely young,
So passionate to live,
That they can turn a harlot's kiss
To love, and gladly give
What's left of them to death,
And then have all to give.

Sons of the rising sun,
I, from across the sea,
Drink to your gathered youth
And your gallant chivalry.
And I would to God by your side
We fought, as you, to be free.





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