The Call

The Dominions are being invited to furnish contingents to assist in straightening out the tangle in the Near East. Gallipoli Peninsula, where there are more than 20,000 British and Anzac graves, is said to be threatened.

There’s a call a-coming, Diggers —
There’s a call across the deep—
From where good cobbers, long gone West,
Their silent watches keep —
From where white crosses dot the shore
‘Way down by Sari Bair,
There’s a call a-coming, Diggers,
From the comrades “over there.”

“Are you coming over, brothers?
Are you coming back, again?
‘Twas you, and we one other year
Sprang to the call for men.
We thought our task was done, brothers;
But peace may not be yet.
(And you are men and Anzacs still;
And, you can not forget!

“Are you coming over, brothers?
Was our sacrifice in vain? 
Who died for peace and liberty,
And never fought for gain.
We may not lie at rest, brothers,
While yet there’s work to do
Are you coming over brothers?
For the game is up to you.”

There’s a call a-coming, Digger—
There’s a call across the deep:
A call to you from men you know—
Brave men who can not sleep—
Dead men who may not rest, brothers,
While war clouds gather red.
Are you going over, Digger,
For the honor of the dead?

“C. J. Dennis”
Herald, 18 September 1922, p8