They had lost no honour. They were not to blame that they were creeping off like thieves in the night. Had others (not of their profession), many hundreds of miles away, but been as they, as generous, as wise, as far-seeing, as full of sacrifice, those thinned companies, with the look of pain in their faces, and the mud of the hills thick upon their bodies, would have given thanks in Santa Sophia three months before. They had failed to take Gallipoli. and the mine-fields still barred the Hellespont, but they had fought a battle such as has never been seen upon this earth. What they had done will become a glory for ever, wherever the deeds of heroic, unhelped men are honoured and pitied and understood. They went up at the call of duty, with a bright banner of a battle-cry, against an impregnable fort. Without guns, without munitions, without help, and without water to drink, they climbed the scarp, and held it by their own glorious manhood, quickened by a word from their chief. Now they were giving back the scarp, and going out into new adventures, wherever the war might turn.
John Masefield, in Gallipoli
General Notes.-Why did the Allies leave the Peninsula? Discuss the question, Were the Turks wholly unaware of the projected evacuation? Chanak is a hill which was stormed by the New Zealanders on the night of the 6th of August, 1915. Santa Sophia is a famous mosque in Constantinople. The name means "holy wisdom." Write an essay on "Anzac: Gains and Losses."LESSON 24
ANzAC DAy
The scarlet poppy burns again, The tender grasses wave,The bitter almond sheds her leaves On many a nameless grave.
The earth has healed her wounds again Where Turk and Christian met,And stark against an alien sky The cross of Christ is set.
From north and south and east and west,
With eager eyes aflame.
With heads erect and laughing lips The young Crusaders came.
The waves still wash the rocky coast, The evening shadows creepWhere through the dim, receding years They tread the halls of sleep.
O sacred land, Gallipoli!
Home of our youthful dead;
How friendly is the springing grass That shields each narrow bed!
The toiling peasant turns to pray, Calling upon his God,And little children laugh and play Where once their footsteps trod.
Mourn not for them, nor wish them back; Life cannot harm them now;The kiss of death has touched each check And pressed each icy brow.
Yet, on this day when first they died,
Turn back the troubled years; Pause in the press of life awhile;Give them again-our tears.
Capel Boake (Miss Doris Kerr)
Author.-Ca p e l Bo a k e (Doris Boake Kerr), niece of Barcroft Boake, Australian poet; born in Summerhill, Sydney, and educated in Melbourne. She has contributed verse to The Australasian and other papers, and short stories to The Bulletin, The Australasian, etc. She also contributed to The Little Track, a book of verse published by Melville & Mullen Pty. Ltd. She wrote the novels Painted Clay and Romany Mark.
General Notes.-Discuss the fitness of the phrase, " The young Crusader." Why is Gallipoli a sacred land? What is meant by "Turn back the troubled years", "Is there aught to give but tears"?
LESSON 25
O CApTAIN! my CApTAIN!
[Abraham Lincoln was the President of the United States during the stormiest years of that nation"s history. But for his leadership and guidance, the civil war that raged between the southern states and the rest of the Union would possibly have divided the American people for ever.
Five days after the surrender of the Southern army, Lincoln was shot dead by a half-crazed assassin. Here is a poem about Lincoln"s death, written by a famous American poet. The Captatin is Lincoln; can you guess what ship it is that he has guided safely past dangers into a peaceful haven?]
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,The ship has weathered every rack. the prize we sought is won,The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;But oh heart! heart! heart! Oh the bleeding drops of red!
Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;Rise up-for you the flag is flung-for you the bugle trills,For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths-for you the shores a-crowding,For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;Here, Captain ! dear father ! This arm beneath your head !
It is some dream that on the deck You"ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells ! But I, with mournful tread,Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.
Walt Whitman.
Author.-Walt Whitman.(1819-1892), "the unique poetic celebrant of Democracy." During his life he was printer, editor, teacher, and a nurse in the American Civil War. His poetry is found in Leaves of Grass, in the form of curious, irregular, recitative verses. He published one prosework, Specimen Days.
General Notes.-Why is the State like a ship? Name some of our Australian captains. What was the "fearful trip"? Write a little essay on Lincoln.
Drawn by R.C.Fricke
The Lincoln Memorial at Washington, U.S.A.
LESSON 26
A NOBlE ASpIRATION
[This is the last sentence of a speech made by Abraham Lincoln a few weeks before his death. The Civil War was nearly over, and Lincoln had just been made President for a second term.]
With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on, to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation"s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
Abraham Lincoln.
