Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis - Anzac Square: What The Digger Said lyrics

Said the Digger: 'Soon forgot! Soon forgot, the deeds of war. Better so, may be. . . Why not? Beauty fades and laurels rot; Last year's roses are no more. Fame?' the one-armed Digger said, 'What of glory when you're dead?' 'Stone and bra**,' the Digger said. 'Stone and bra**: tho' these endure, Marble flaunting o'er my head Would be dead, as I'd be dead. How may any man be sure That the hearts of men shall hold Memories of tales once told? This alone I surely know: earth I am, and earth shall be, Only Mother Earth can show, When I go where all men go, Aught of this that had been me. Mother Earth, once stained so red, She must know,' the Digger said. 'Would you raise, in braggart heaps, stone, cold stone, to mark the fame Of full many a man who sleeps Where the earth of Anzac keeps Guard o'er legions lacking name Plinth and pillar reared to show Pomp and pride they cannot know? 'They ask no portentous pile, boasting to a heedless sky, Stirring men a little while, Subject, then, for sigh or smile, Not for this do soldiers die, With our pa**ing let Pride be, All we ask is Memory: 'Memory of such fair worth as a fighting man may claim, And a plot of hallowed earth In the city of our birth: Earth that bears a hallowed name. Let it be envisioned there: Anzac worth in Anzac Square. 'Memory,' the Digger said. 'If so be the city judge Soldiers worthy, who have bled. Worthy of her love, the dead, Shall the city, then, begrudge One wide acre of her soil For who saved the whole from spoil? 'Here, it may be, by God's grace, our son's sons may sit at last, In the People's market place, Knowing truly, as they trace Memory of me long past, 'Tis enshrined forever there: Anzac worth in Anzac Square.'