Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MARY LESLIE; BEFORE VITTORIA, JUNE 20, 1813, by ARTHUR THOMAS QUILLER-COUCH Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: O mary leslie, blithe and shrill Last Line: That clean cup to my mouth! Alternate Author Name(s): Q; Quiller-couch, A. T. Subject(s): Napoleonic Wars; Soldiers; Spain; Vittoria, Spain; War | ||||||||
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...I AM YOUR WAITER TONIGHT AND MY NAME IS DIMITRI by ROBERT HASS MITRAILLIATRICE by ERNEST HEMINGWAY RIPARTO D'ASSALTO by ERNEST HEMINGWAY WAR VOYEURS by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA THE DREAM OF WAKING by RANDALL JARRELL THE SURVIVOR AMONG GRAVES by RANDALL JARRELL SO MANY BLOOD-LAKES by ROBINSON JEFFERS SAGE COUNSEL by ARTHUR THOMAS QUILLER-COUCH |
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