A SOLDIER maimed and in the beggars' list Did thus address a well-fed pluralist: @3Sol@1. At Guadeloupe my leg and thigh I lost, No pension have I, though its right I boast; Your reverence, please some charity bestow, Heav'n will pay double—when you're there, you know. @3Plu@1. Heav'n pay me double! Vagrant—know that I Ne'er give to strollers, they're so apt to lie: Your parish and some work would you become, So haste away—or constable's your doom. @3Sol@1. May't please your reverence, hear my case, and then You'll say I'm poorer than the most of men: When Marlbro siegèd Lisle, I first drew breath, And there my father met untimely death; My mother followed, of a broken heart, So I've no friend or parish, for my part. @3Plu@1. I say, begone. —With that, he loudly knocks, And Timber-toe begins to smell the stocks. Away he stumps—but, in a rood or two, He cleared his weasand and his thoughts broke through: @3Sol@1. This 'tis to beg of those who sometimes preach Calm charity, and ev'ry virtue teach; But their disguise to common sense is thin: A pocket buttoned—hypocrite within. Send me, kind heav'n, the well-tanned captain's face, Who gives me twelvepence and a curse, with grace; But let me not, in house or lane or street, These treble-pensioned parsons ever meet; And when I die, may I still numbered be With the rough soldier, to eternity. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OLNEY HYMNS: 1. WALKING WITH GOD by WILLIAM COWPER IMMORTALITY by GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL IN A SPRING GROVE by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM SUNRISE OVER THE SIERRAS by HENRY MEADE BLAND A JAPANESE EVENING by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |