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Anthems

Anthems of the suffrage movement

Shoulder to Shoulder.

(to the tune of ‘Men of Harlech’)

From the daughters of the nation

Bursts a cry of indignation

Breathes a sigh of consecration

In a sacred cause.

They who share their country’s burden

Win no rights, receive no guerdon,

Only bear the heavy burden

Of unrighteous laws.

Women young and older

Shoulder put to shoulder

In the might of sacred right

Bolder still and bolder.

Let no ancient custom bind you

Let one bond of suffering bind you

Leave unrighteous laws behind you,

Soon you shall be free!

The Women’s Battle Song

Tune: Onward Christian Soldiers

Forward sister women!

Onward ever more,

Bondage is behind you,

Freedom is before,

Raise the standard boldly,

In the morning sun;

‘Gainst a great injustice,

See the fight begun!

Forward, forward sisters!

Onward ever more!

Bonage is behing you,

Freedom is before.

Theodora Mills

The March of the Women

Shout, shout, up with your song!

Cry with the wind for the dawn is breaking.

March, march, swing you along,

Wide blows our banner and hope is waking.

Song with its story, dreams with their glory,

Lo! They call and glad is their word.

Forward! Hark how it swells

Thunder of freedom, the voice of the Lord.

Long, long, we in the past,

Cower’d in dread from the light of Heaven;

Strong, strong, stand we at last;

Fearless in faith and with sight new given.

Strength with its beauty, life with its duty

(Hear the voice, oh, hear and obey).

These, these beckon us on,

Open your eyes to the blaze of day!

Comrades, ye who have dared,

First in the battle to strive and sorrow;

Scorned, spurned, naught ye have cared,

Raising your eyes to a wider morrow,

Ways that are weary, days that are dreay,

Toil and pain by faith ye have borne.

Hail, hail, victors ye stand,

Wearing the wreath that the brave have worn!

Life, strife, these two are one!

Naught can ye win but by faith and daring;

On, on that ye have done,

But for the work of today preparing.

Firm in reliance, laugh a defiance

(Laugh in hope for sure is the end)

March, march, many as one,

Shoulder to shoulder and friend to friend!

Music by Ethel Smyth: Words by Cicely Hamilton

Image: Ethel Smyth doc

Rise Up Women!

Tune: John Brown’s Body

Rise up, women, for the fight is hard and long;

Rise up in thousands singing loud a battle song.

Right is might, and in strength we shall be strong

And the cause goes marching on

Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Glory, glory, hallelujah! The cause goes marching on.

Theodora Mills

The Women’s Marseillaise

Arise! ye daughters of a land

That vaunts its liberty!

May restless rulers understand

That women must be free

That women will be free.

Hark! hark! the trumpet’s calling!

Who’d be a laggard in the fight?

With vict’ry even now in sight

And stubborn foemen backward falling

To Freedom’s cause till death

We swear our fealty.

March on! March on! Face to the dawn

The dawn of liberty.

March on! March on! Face to the dawn

The dawn of liberty.

Arise! Tho’ pain or loss betide

Grudge naught of freedom’s toll

For what they loved the martyrs died;

Are we of meaner soul?

Are we of meaner soul?

Our comrades greatly daring.

Thro’ prison bars have led the way:

Who would not follow to the fray,

Their glorious struggle proudly sharing?

To Freedom’s cause till death

We swear our fealty.

March on! March on! Face to the dawn

The dawn of liberty.

March on! March on! Face to the dawn

The dawn of liberty

Words: Miss F.E.M. Macaulay

Sister Suffragette

Melbourne anthem with link

From Female Pipings in Eden

‘March of the Women’

In those early days of my association with the W.S.P.U. occurred an event which, in her pride, the writer must recount ere the pace becomes such that a personal reference would be unthinkable, namely the formal introduction to the Suffragettes of ‘The March of the Women’, to which Cicely Hamilton fitted the words after the tune had been written – not an easy undertaking. A suffragette choir had been sternly drilled, and I remember Edith Craig plaintively commenting on the difficulty of hitting a certain E flat. But it was maintained that the interval is a peculiarly English one (which is true) and must be coped with. We had the organ, and I think a cornet to blast forth the tune (a system much to be recommended on such occasions), and it was wonderful processing up the centre aisle of the Albert Hall in Mus. Doc. robes at Mrs Pankhurst’s side, and being presented with a beautiful baton, encircled by a golden collar with the date , 23rd March 1911.

Ethel Smyth

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