The skies that arched his land were blue,

His bush-born winds were warm and sweet,

And yet from earliest hours he knew

The tides of victory and defeat;

From fierce floods thundering at his birth,

From red droughts ravening while he played,

He learned to fear no foes on earth -

-The bravest thing God ever made!�



The bugles of the motherland

Rang ceaselessly across the sea,

To call him and his lean brown band

To shape imperial destiny;

He went, by youth-s grave purpose willed,

The goal unknown, the cost unweighed,

The promise of his blood fulfilled -

-The bravest thing God ever made!�



We know - it is our deathless pride! -

The splendour of his first fierce blows,

How, reckless, glorious, undenied,

He stormed those steel-lined cliffs we know.

And none who saw him scale the height

Behind his reeking bayonet blade

Would rob him of his title-right -

-The bravest thing God ever made!�



Bravest, where half the world of men

Are brave beyond all earth-s rewards,

So stoutly none shall charge again

Till the last breaking of the swords;

Wounded or hale, won home from the war,

Or yonder by the Lone Pine laid,

Give him his due forever more -

-The bravest thing God ever made!�