Spirit of Anzac

One of the first fruits of the Prime Minister’s broadcast appeal in connection with the Conversion Loan was a telegram announcing that the Soldiers’ T.B. Association of Sydney intended to convert. In a letter to Mr Scullin one of the Digger pensioners said: ‘I am sure that the spirit of Anzac .… will not fail you in your great fight for Australia.’

The spirit lives . . . Born in the fiery testing,
Where war’s grim crucible tried souls of men,
It came to us from those for ever resting,
A sacred torch that must not fade again —
A torch that lit within a wakening nation,
Strengthened thro’ sorrow, an eternal blaze
Upon the highroad to a land’s salvation.
Else, Anzac is forgot. The spirit stays.

The spirit stays . . . Tho’ years that used us gently
Have dulled the glorious message that they gave,
Those quiet tongues still urge us eloquently,
Unceasingly, front many a nameless grave.
Shall all that they had won be spurned, rejected,
Because brief gloom today the land enfolds?
Shall folly bid us leave the flame neglected?
Never, while Anzac lives! The spirit holds.

The spirit holds .... The years shall never kill it,
Nor peace, nor plenty, nor depression’s dread.
The task is set, and ours is to fulfil it,
Or lose for ever kinship with the dead.
A trivial task to theirs who now sit judging,
Who yielded up their all in days gone by,
Surely our answer comes unpressed, ungrudging:
“The spirit lives; and Anzac shall not die!”

“Den”
Herald, 3 July 1931, p5