While The Billy BoilsSearchI have given you unto the Empire,You will follow its battle flag;You will hear the sound of slaughter,In valley, on plain and crag.I have taken you out of the playground,From many a merry mate;To send you — a stripling soldier —Into the field of fate.But when the good work is over,And your share of the task is done,I shall be proud of the lad I lent,I shall be proud to say I sentMy son,My son.
They have gone in their thousands lusty,But the gaps still cry for more,They have come from the bush-land lonely,From the scrub and the sounding shore;From out of the desert dreaming,From out of the rolling range;From the distant placid pastures,From the hills that never change;And out of the alleys squalid,Where the days are drear and dun,With pride I heard their footsteps ringAnd so I have sent to serve my KingMy son,My son.
They have gone in the crowded transports,They have fought the fight — and fell;They have felt on their fevered facesDraughts from the deeps of hell.Thinned by the hidden horror,Drowned in the shot-swept blue,They have closed up the gaps of glory,Steadied, and thundered through:And into that mounded countryWhere the work of war was done,Where the blood-red trenches blur and blend,With no wav’ring, weak’ning sigh I sendMy son,My son.
Did I fail in a father’s duty?Did I keep him with mine and me?How could he face the questionIn the days of peace to be?Could he walk in the public places?Could he do what all good men do,When the patriot women shunned him,When it came to his time to woo?If he took not to-day his bayonet,His khaki brave and gun,I would see his brothers in shame abide,I would see them pass on the other sideMy son,My son.
God of our destined duty,Of our Country, Flag and King,Keep him in courage loftyWhen the hell-made missiles swing.And if he must prove an AbelKilled by another Cain,Give him, O Lord, at parting,No portion of Calvary’s pain.Let us write over his slumbersThe glorious words “Well done!”For whether our Flag shall wilt or wave,Let us remember He also gaveHis Son,His Son.