THE TROJAN WAR, 1915

We care not what old Homer tells

Of Trojan war and Helen’s fame.

Upon the ancient Dardanelles

New peoples write—in blood—their name.

Those Grecian heroes long have fled,

No more the Plain of Troy they haunt;

Made sacred by our Southern dead,

Historic is the Hellespont.

Homeric wars are fought again

By men who like old Greeks can die;

Australian backblock heroes slain,

With Hector and Achilles lie.

No legend lured these men to roam;

They journeyed forth to save from harm

Some Mother-Helen sad at home,

Some obscure Helen on a farm.

And when one falls upon the hill—

Then by dark Styx’s gloomy strand,

In honour to plain Private Bill

Great Agamemnon lifts his hand!

J. Wareham, 1st Aust. Field Amb.