AustLit

This poem was evidently written by the 19th century American poet Lydia Sigourney. It was published in a number of Australian newspapers during World War I, though its authorship was not always acknowledged.

The poem was also published in the Australian Worker in September 1914, where it was attributed to a contributor, S.A. Mansfield, of Boswell, Tasmania. It is unclear whether Mansfield deliberately sought to pass the work off as their own, however the matter of the work's authorship was discussed in the Australian Worker of 12 November, 1914. This was the second of two poems not written by Mansfield which appeared in the Australian Worker under Mansfield's name, the other being the poem 'Freedom', by the 19th century Scottish journalist and author Charles Mackay.