Republicans! the time is coming! <br />Listen to the distant drumming! <br />Hearken to the whispers humming <br />In the troubled atmosphere. <br /> <br />Ye are born to do the toiling; <br />On and on—and no recoiling! <br />To the fighting, to the foiling <br />Of the wrongs that wrong us here. <br /> <br />Let the Loyal laugh and jeer you; <br />Let them in derision cheer you. <br />Still the cowards show they fear you <br />By their deeds and all they say. <br /> <br />Let Britannia rule for ever <br />O’er the wave; but never, never! <br />Rule a land great oceans sever <br />Fifteen thousand miles away. <br /> <br />Stained by persecution’s fires <br />Thinned of homes and thick with spires, <br />They love the land that bred their sires, <br />Ye the Land that breeds your sons. <br /> <br />And your sons shall have the reaping, <br />And your sons shall have the keeping <br />Of your honour while you’re sleeping, <br />Freedom’s vanguard, in your graves.<br /><br />Henry Lawson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-distant-drum/
