An Imperial Reply

'Tis glorious, when the thing to do,
Is at the supreme instant done!

We count your first fore-running few
A thousand men for every one!

For this true stroke of Statesmanship-
The best Australian Poem yet —
Old England gives your hand the grip,
And binds you with a coronet,
In which the Gold o' the Wattle glows
With Shamrock, Thistle, and the Rose.

They talked of England growing old:

They said she spoke with feeble voice;
But hear the virile answer rolled
Across the world! Behold her Boys
Come back to her full-statured Men,
To make four-square her fighting ranks.
She feels her youth renewed again,
With heart too full for aught but " Thanks! "
And now the Gold o' the Wattle glows
With Shamrock, Thistle, and the Rose.

" My Boys have come of age to-day"
The proud old Mother smiling said.
"They icrite a brand-new page to-day,
By far-off futures to be read! "
Throughout all lands of British blood,
This stroke hath kindled such a glow;
The Federal links of Brotherhood
Are clasped and welded at a blow.
And aye the Gold o' the Wattle glows
With Shamrock, Thistle, and the Rose.

Sydney, 18S5.