Who's That Calling?

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
Boosey & Co. (january 1900)

Who's That Calling? is a poem written by Arthur Conan Doyle first published in The Daily News on 18 october 1899. The poem was uncollected.


Editions


Who's That Calling?

The Daily News (18 october 1899, p. 7)

Who's that calling?
It comes from far away,
The voice of a brother o'er the sea.
It says: "Am I a stranger,
That you leave me in my danger,
Oh my brothers, will you stretch a hand to me!
Send us the flag!
The red cross flag!
Send us the banner that we love!
We long for it, we sigh for it.
To live for it, to die for it—
God save the red cross flag!"

Who's that calling?
It comes from far away,
The voice of a brother in the West.
"We are loyal, We are true.
We are flesh and blood of you,
We are coming with our bravest and our best.
Bearing the flag,
The red cross flag,
Bearing the banner that we love.
And is it stormy weather!
Then we sink or swim together.
God save the red cross flag!"

Who's that calling?
It comes from far away,
A voice from the far Pacific main.
"And shall we be behind
When the banner's in the wind,
And the old game is playing once again?
We're for the flag,
The red cross flag,
We're for the flag that is our own.
Do you ask a heart to care for it,
A hand to do and dare for it?
God save the red cross flag!"

Who's that calling?
The old sea-mother calls,
In her pride at the children that she bore:
"Oh noble hearts and true,
There is work for us to do.
And we'll do it as we've done it oft before.
Under the flag,
The red cross flag,
Under the flag our fathers bore.
They died in days gone by for it,
As we will gladly die for it.
God save the red cross flag!"

A. CONAN DOYLE