Cpl James Drummond Burns (Lilydale), 21st Battalion: While stationed at Broadmeadows Military Camp he writes the following poem to be published in his old school newspaper at Scotch College. It sums up how he felt about the conflict and about imperial identity as he saw it. Once published the poem hits a nerve with the general public and goes on to become the most well received and widely read piece of Australian war verse ever.
For England
The bugles of England were blowing o’er the sea,
As they had called a thousand years, calling now to me;
They wake me from dreaming in the dawning of the day,
The bugles of England – and how could I stay?
The banners of England, unfurled across the sea,
Floating out upon the wind, were beckoning to me;
Storm-rent and battle-torn, smoke-stained and grey,
The banners of England, and how could I stay?
O England, I heard the cry of those that died for thee,
Sounding like an organ voice across the winter sea;
They lived and died for England, and gladly went their way –
England, O England, how could I stay.