The skies that arched his land were blue,
His bush-born winds were warm and sweet,
And yet from earliest hours he knew
The tides of victory and defeat;
From fierce floods thundering at his birth,
From red droughts ravening while he played,
He learned to fear no foes on earth -
-The bravest thing God ever made!â?
The bugles of the motherland
Rang ceaselessly across the sea,
To call him and his lean brown band
To shape imperial destiny;
He went, by youth-s grave purpose willed,
The goal unknown, the cost unweighed,
The promise of his blood fulfilled -
-The bravest thing God ever made!â?
We know - it is our deathless pride! -
The splendour of his first fierce blows,
How, reckless, glorious, undenied,
He stormed those steel-lined cliffs we know.
And none who saw him scale the height
Behind his reeking bayonet blade
Would rob him of his title-right -
-The bravest thing God ever made!â?
Bravest, where half the world of men
Are brave beyond all earth-s rewards,
So stoutly none shall charge again
Till the last breaking of the swords;
Wounded or hale, won home from the war,
Or yonder by the Lone Pine laid,
Give him his due forever more -
-The bravest thing God ever made!â?