Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BUDMOUTH DEARS by THOMAS HARDY

Poet Analysis

First Line: WHEN WE LAY WHERE BUDMOUTH BEACH IS
Last Line: DOWN?
Subject(s): SOLDIERS;
WHEN we lay where Budmouth Beach is,
O the girls were fresh as peaches
With their tall and tossing figures and their eyes of blue
and brown!
And our hearts would ache with longing
As we paced from our sing-songing
With a smart @3Clink! Clink!@1 up the Esplanade and down.

They distracted and delayed us
By the pleasant pranks they played us,
And what marvel, then, if troopers, even of regiments of
renown,
On whom flashed those eyes divine, O,
Should forget the countersign, O,
As we tore @3Clink! Clink!@1 back to camp above the town.

Do they miss us much, I wonder,
Now that war has swept us sunder,
And we roam from where the faces smile to where the
faces frown?
And no more behold the features
Of the fair fantastic creatures,
And no more @3Clink! Clink!@1 past the parlours of the
town?

Shall we once again there meet them?
Falter fond attempts to greet them?
Will the gay sling-jacket glow again beside the muslin
gown? --
Will they archly quiz and con us
With a sideway glance upon us,
While our spurs @3Clink! Clink!@1 up the Esplanade and
down?


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