Episode 6.1 Leon Gellert Gallipoli Poet

WW1 Digger History Podcast

Leon Gellert, a 23 year old Physical Education Teacher from Leabrook, South Australia is considered to be the best Great War poet from Australia. This episode focuses on his war experience and his poems.

I watched the place where they had scaled the height,

The height whereon they bled so bitterly

Throughout each day and through each blistered night

I sat there long, and listened - all things listened too

I heard the epics of a thousand trees,

A thousand waves I heard; and then I knew

The waves were very old, the trees were wise:

The dead would be remembered evermore-

The valiant dead that gazed upon the skies,

And slept in great battalions by the shore.