Activists From Australia

"She trips along the street, a flashing wonder, Dazzling enigma! Courtesan or maid? Temple of chastity, or hall of trade? An angel-presence, or a soul of plunder Casting the doors of sanctitude asunder? A beauteousness, by love and laughter swayed, Or death in immemorial masquerade? A dainty dawn-song, or a snarl of thunder?"

"And Anzac now is an enchanted shore;A tragic splendor, and a holy name;A deed eternity will still acclaim;A loss that crowns the victories of yore;A glittering golden dome for evermoreShining above the minarets of fame."

"The workers of Kembla, those leaders of men, Those leaders of deed as in thought. They challenged the might of the pound and the yen, And there at the 'Delfram' they fought The cause of the Chinese distraught. And still marching onward, With gaze lifted sunward, The call of Eureka is caught. Democracy thrills at that message of yore, The vow of Eureka has echoed once more."

"Ah, Love, the earth is woe’s And sadly helpers needs: And, till its burden goes, Our work is—where it bleeds."

"When, comrades, we thrill to the message of speaker in highway or hall, The voice of the poet is reaching the silenter poet in all: And again, as of old, when the flames are to leap up the turrets of Wrong, Shall the torch of the New Revolution be lit from the words of a Song!"

"Are you for Light, and trimmed, with oil in place, Or but a Will o’ Wisp on marshy quest? A new demesne for Mammon to infest? Or lurks millennial ’neath your face?"

"‘Be true, be brave, be merciful, be free!’"

"All that we love in olden lands and lore Was signal of her coming long ago! Bacon foresaw her, Campanella, More, And Plato’s eyes were with her star aglow!"

"This is a rune I ravelled in the still, Arrogant stare of an Australian cow."

"And our reward? In this wan land, In clientage of Greed, Despised, polluted, maimed and banned, To wander and—to breed."

"They teach and live the Golden Rule Of Young Democracy:—‘That culture, joy and goodliness Be th’ equal right of all: That Greed no more shall those oppress Who by the wayside fall:‘That each shall share what all men sow: That colour, caste’s a lie: That man is God, however low— Is man, however high.’"