O MARY LESLIE, blithe and shrill The bugles blew for Spain: And you below the Castle Hill Stood in the crowd your lane. Then hearts were wild to watch us pass, Yet laith to let us go! While mine said, 'Fare-ye-well, my lass!' And yours, 'God keep my jo!' Here by the bivouac fire, above These fields of savage play, I'll lift my love to meet thy love Twa thousand miles away, Where yonder, yonder by the stars, Nightlong there rins a burn, And maids with lovers at the wars May list their wraiths' return. More careless yet my spirit grows Of fame, more sick of blood: But I can think of Badajoz, And yet that God is good. Beyond the siege, beyond the stour, Beyond the sack of towns, I reach to pluck ae lily-floo'r Where leaders press for crowns. O Mary! lily! bow'd and wet With mair than mornin's rain! The bugles up the Lawnmarket Shall sound us home again. Then fare-ye-well, these foreign lands, And be damn'd their bitter drouth, With your dear face between my hands And the cup held to my mouth, My love, That clean cup to my mouth! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OH, TORTURE NOT MY SOUL! by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS CHARACTERS: MRS. FENTON by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE SOLITARY TOMB by BERNARD BARTON THE WOUNDED VULTURE by ANNE CHARLOTTE LYNCH BOTTA |