[ { "title": "The Soldier", "author": "Gerard Manley Hopkins", "lines": [ "Yes. Why do we бll, seeing of a soldier, bless him? bless", "Our redcoats, our tars? Both these being, the greater part,", "But frail clay, nay but foul clay. Here it is: the heart,", "Since, proud, it calls the calling manly, gives a guess", "That, hopes that, makesbelieve, the men must be no less;", "It fancies, feigns, deems, dears the artist after his art;", "And fain will find as sterling all as all is smart,", "And scarlet wear the spirit of wбr thйre express.", "", "Mark Christ our King. He knows war, served this soldiering through;", "He of all can handle a rope best. There he bides in bliss", "Now, and sйeing somewhйre some mбn do all that man can do,", "For love he leans forth, needs his neck must fall on, kiss,", "And cry 'O Christ-done deed! So God-made-flesh does too:", "Were I come o'er again' cries Christ 'it should be this'." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "403. The Soldier’s Return: A Ballad", "author": "Robert Burns", "lines": [ "WHEN wild war’s deadly blast was blawn,", " And gentle peace returning,", "Wi’ mony a sweet babe fatherless,", " And mony a widow mourning;", "I left the lines and tented field,", " Where lang I’d been a lodger,", "My humble knapsack a’ my wealth,", " A poor and honest sodger.", "", "", "A leal, light heart was in my breast,", " My hand unstain’d wi’ plunder;", "And for fair Scotia hame again,", " I cheery on did wander:", "I thought upon the banks o’ Coil,", " I thought upon my Nancy,", "I thought upon the witching smile", " That caught my youthful fancy.", "", "", "At length I reach’d the bonie glen,", " Where early life I sported;", "I pass’d the mill and trysting thorn,", " Where Nancy aft I courted:", "Wha spied I but my ain dear maid,", " Down by her mother’s dwelling!", "And turn’d me round to hide the flood", " That in my een was swelling.", "", "", "Wi’ alter’d voice, quoth I, “Sweet lass,", " Sweet as yon hawthorn’s blossom,", "O! happy, happy may he be,", " That’s dearest to thy bosom:", "My purse is light, I’ve far to gang,", " And fain would be thy lodger;", "I’ve serv’d my king and country lang—", " Take pity on a sodger.”", "", "", "Sae wistfully she gaz’d on me,", " And lovelier was than ever;", "Quo’ she, “A sodger ance I lo’ed,", " Forget him shall I never:", "Our humble cot, and hamely fare,", " Ye freely shall partake it;", "That gallant badge-the dear cockade,", " Ye’re welcome for the sake o’t.”", "", "", "She gaz’d—she redden’d like a rose—", " Syne pale like only lily;", "She sank within my arms, and cried,", " “Art thou my ain dear Willie?”", "“By him who made yon sun and sky!", " By whom true love’s regarded,", "I am the man; and thus may still", " True lovers be rewarded.", "", "", "“The wars are o’er, and I’m come hame,", " And find thee still true-hearted;", "Tho’ poor in gear, we’re rich in love,", " And mair we’se ne’er be parted.”", "Quo’ she, “My grandsire left me gowd,", " A mailen plenish’d fairly;", "And come, my faithfu’ sodger lad,", " Thou’rt welcome to it dearly!”", "", "", "For gold the merchant ploughs the main,", " The farmer ploughs the manor;", "But glory is the sodger’s prize,", " The sodger’s wealth is honor:", "The brave poor sodger ne’er despise,", " Nor count him as a stranger;", "Remember he’s his country’s stay,", " In day and hour of danger." ], "linecount": "64" }, { "title": "The Soldier's Wife", "author": "Robert Southey", "lines": [ "Weary way-wanderer languid and sick at heart", "Travelling painfully over the rugged road,", "Wild-visag'd Wanderer! ah for thy heavy chance!", "", "Sorely thy little one drags by thee bare-footed,", "Cold is the baby that hangs at thy bending back", "Meagre and livid and screaming its wretchedness.", "", "Woe-begone mother, half anger, half agony,", "As over thy shoulder thou lookest to hush the babe,", "Bleakly the blinding snow beats in thy hagged face.", "", "Thy husband will never return from the war again,", "Cold is thy hopeless heart even as Charity--", "Cold are thy famish'd babes--God help thee, widow'd One!" ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "1914 V: The Soldier", "author": "Rupert Brooke", "lines": [ "If I should die, think only this of me:", "That there's some corner of a foreign field", "That is for ever England. There shall be", "In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;", "A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,", "Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,", "A body of England's, breathing English air,", "Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.", "", "And think, this heart, all evil shed away,", "A pulse in the eternal mind, no less", "Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;", "Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;", "And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,", "In hearts at peace, under an English heaven." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "The Soldier", "author": "Rupert Brooke", "lines": [ "If I should die, think only this of me:", "That there's some corner of a foreign field", "That is for ever England. There shall be", "In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;", "A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,", "Gave once her flowers to love, her ways to roam;", "A body of England's, breathing English air,", "Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.", "And think, this heart, all evil shed away,", "A pulse in the eternal mind, no less", "Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;", "Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;", "And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,", "In hearts at peace, under an English heaven." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "V. The Soldier", "author": "Rupert Brooke", "lines": [ "If I should die, think only this of me:", "That there's some corner of a foreign field", "That is for ever England. There shall be", "In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;", "A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,", "Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,", "A body of England's, breathing English air,", "Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.", "", "And think, this heart, all evil shed away,", "A pulse in the eternal mind, no less", "Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;", "Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;", "And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,", "In hearts at peace, under an English heaven." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "The Soldier", "author": "John Clare", "lines": [ "Home furthest off grows dearer from the way;", "And when the army in the Indias lay", "Friends' letters coming from his native place", "Were like old neighbours with their country face.", "And every opportunity that came", "Opened the sheet to gaze upon the name", "Of that loved village where he left his sheep", "For more contented peaceful folk to keep;", "And friendly faces absent many a year", "Would from such letters in his mind appear.", "And when his pockets, chafing through the case,", "Wore it quite out ere others took the place,", "Right loath to be of company bereft", "He kept the fragments while a bit was left." ], "linecount": "14" } ]