[After reading Lissauer's "Song of German Hate," "Brisbane Courier." February 1.]
German and Turk, you matter not,
Not a blow for a blow, not a shot for a shot,
We love you now, we hate you not,
We hold the land and the seaward gate.
We love as one, we fight as one,
We have one mother -- one alone.
She is known to you all, she is known to you all,
She watches behind the storm and the flood,
Full of pity and power and might, of all
Compassionate love in bone and blood.
Go! Stupid ye at the Judgment place,
We'll meet you surely face to face.
Your oath of bronze we will not shake.
Why! Keep it for your Kaiser's sake!
But hear this word ! We shout the word!
Through all the Empire is it heard,
We will never stoop to hate,
We love as one, we fight as one,
We have one mother -- one alone,
ENGLAND.
In town and city, field or hall,
Wherever the lilt of a breeze can fall.
Like a leaf of prayer-like the song of a sail,
The children lift their hands and hail,
Close clipped like the clash of a trumpet's play,
And shut, "Welcome! " thro' the livelong day.
Whose be the Fate ?
They have not a single hate.
Who is thus known ?
They have one mother -- one alone,
ENGLAND.
We want not the folk of the earth to pay.
We want not gold where the ramparts lay.
We ride the ocean with bow on bow,
We reckon well -- for we reckon you now.
German and Turk, you matter not,
Not a blow for a blow, not a shot for a shot.
We fight the battle with love for weal,
As you will know when Peace we seal,
For we can love without lasting hate.
Love can forego the fiercest hate,
Love of water and love of land,
Love of head and love of hand,
Love of hammer and love of crown,
Love of a myriad millions marching down,
We love as one we fight as one.
We have one mother -- one alone,
ENGLAND.
First published in The Brisbane Courier, 4 February 1915;
and later in
A Song of Mother Love by Zora Cross, 1916.
Note: you can read Lissauer's original poem here, and the article that Cross read in The Brisbane Courier here.
