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In this article written as Anzac Day approaches, the principal curator at Fine Poets.com publishers of audio CDs of classic Australian poetry presents the little known story of the military activities of Andrew Barton Paterson, better known as Banjo Paterson, the author of our unofficial national anthem Waltzing Matilda. Paterson served in both the First World War and the Boer War and wrote about it. His Battlefield Poems include: Boots Our Own Flag On The Trek The Army Mules Swinging The Lead The Quest Eternal That V.C. The Old Tin hat With French to Kimberley The Last Parade There’s Another Blessed Horse Fell Down The poems listed above have been recorded by Australian actor Jack Thompson for the Fine Poets label and are available from HYPERLINK "http://www.finepoets.com" www.finepoets.com as well as on iTunes as individual downloads or albums. They are often amusing as well as moving poems and Peterson seemed less interested in recording the horrors of war than the mateship and stoicism of the Australian soldier. Here are the words to The Last Parade: 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 was recorded by Jack Thompson and appears on the CD Jack Thompson, The Battlefield Poems of Banjo Paterson. Anzac Day
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