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HOW TO BE A HIT ON ANZAC DAY In this article, Fine Poets, the publishers of the Jack Thompson CD The Battlefield Poems of Banjo Paterson suggest a novel gift idea to take to your Anzac Day barbecue. The Anzac Day tradition of the Family barbecue is a long standing one, and for some, can get a bit tiresome with the predictability of it all. This year, instead of taking an average bottle of wine along as your contribution to the day’s festivities, we suggest taking a unique and longer lasting gift: a CD copy of Jack Thompson’s The Battlefield poms of Banjo Paterson. Three Australian icons in one foul swoop! Jack Thompson, Banjo Paterson and Anzac Day! Here’s the list of tracks that appear on the album: 1. Moving On 2. Boots 3. Our Own Flag 4. On The Trek 5. The Army Mules 6. Swingin’ The Lead 7. The Quest Eternal 8. That V.C. 9. The Old Tin Hat 10. With French To Kimberley 11. The Last Parade 12. There’s Another Blessed Horse Fell Down There’s also a special extra track, not written by Paterson which is track number 13, Laurence Binyon’s The Ode of Remembrance. This poem, or segment of poem is read out at every RSL Club in the country at 6pm each evening. You will know the words: Age shall not weary them, not the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, we will remember them. The other remarkable poem on the CD, a particular favourite of Jack Thompson’s is The Last Parade. This is the poem about the horses that the soldiers had had with them all throughout the war, and to whom they naturally became very attached. When the war ended, the Army wouldn’t bring the horses back. Here are the lyrics to the poem: With never a sound of trumpet,?With never a flag displayed,?The last of the old campaigners?Lined up for the last parade. Weary they were and battered,?Shoeless, and knocked about;?From under their ragged forelocks?Their hungry eyes looked out. And they watched as the old commander?Read out, to the cheering men,?The Nation's thanks and the orders?To carry them home again. And the last of the old campaigners,?Sinewy, lean, and spare --?He spoke for his hungry comrades:?`Have we not done our share? `Starving and tired and thirsty?We limped on the blazing plain;?And after a long night's picket?You saddled us up again. `We froze on the wind-swept kopjes?When the frost lay snowy-white.?Never a halt in the daytime,?Never a rest at night! `We knew when the rifles rattled?From the hillside bare and brown,?And over our weary shoulders?We felt warm blood run down, `As we turned for the stretching gallop,?Crushed to the earth with weight;?But we carried our riders through it --?Carried them p'raps too late. `Steel! We were steel to stand it --?We that have lasted through,?We that are old campaigners?Pitiful, poor, and few. `Over the sea you brought us,?Over the leagues of foam:?Now we have served you fairly?Will you not take us home? `Home to the Hunter River,?To the flats where the lucerne grows;?Home where the Murrumbidgee?Runs white with the melted snows. `This is a small thing surely!?Will not you give command?That the last of the old campaigners?Go back to their native land?' . . . . . They looked at the grim commander,?But never a sign he made.?`Dismiss!' and the old campaigners?Moved off from their last parade. This poem and other battlefield poems by Banjo Paterson are available on the CD Jack Thompson, The Battlefield Poems of Banjo Paterson available from www.finepoets.com and also from CD baby and iTunes. Anzac Day
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