I WANT to be alone with you, A moment quite alone. The minutes left to me are few, They say I'll soon be gone. And you are going home on leave, Then say ... but why? I do believe There's not a soul who'll greatly care To hear about me over there. And yet if someone questions you, Whoever it may be,-- Tell them a bullet hit me through The chest, -- and did for me. And say I died, and for the Tsar, And say what fools the doctors are:-- And that I shook you by the hand, And spoke about my native land. My father and my mother, both, By now are surely dead -- To tell the truth, I would be loth To send them tears to shed. If one of them is living, say I'm bad at writing home, and they Have told the regiment to pack, -- And that I shan't be coming back. We had a neighbour, as you know, And you remember I And she.... How very long ago It is we said good-bye! She won't ask after me, nor care, But tell her ev'rything, don't spare Her empty heart; and let her cry; -- To her it doesn't signify. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BIRD OF PARADISE by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES A REQUIEM FOR SOLDIERS LOST IN OCEAN TRANSPORTS by HERMAN MELVILLE EPISTLE TO ROBERT, EARL OF OXFORD, AND EARL MORTIMER by ALEXANDER POPE THE CHARACTER OF A HAPPY LIFE by HENRY WOTTON THE MORAL FABLES: THE COCK AND THE FOX by AESOP TO A BIRD IN THE CITY by MATTHIAS BARR WHAT IS THE SPIRIT? by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE ENEMY by CHARLES BAUDELAIRE THE CEREMONY OF THE PRINTER'S APPRENTICE; A GERMAN MORALITY PLAY by WILLAM BLADES |