HALT! Shoulder arms! Recover! As you were! Right wheel! Eyes left! Attention! Stand at ease! O Britain! O my country! Words like these Have made thy name a terror and a fear To all the nations. Witness Ebro's banks, Assaye, Toulouse, Nivelle, and Waterloo, Where the grim despot muttered -- @3Sauve qui peut!@1 And Ney fled darkling. -- Silence in the ranks! Inspired by these, amidst the iron crash Of armies, in the centre of his troop The soldier stands -- unmovable, not rash -- Until the forces of the foeman droop; Then knocks the Frenchmen to eternal smash, Pounding them into mummy. Shoulder, hoop! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LOCKED OUT; AS TOLD TO A CHILD by ROBERT FROST SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: IPPOLIT KONOVALOFF by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE SLEEP by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING DOWNFALL OF POLAND [FALL OF WARSAW, 1794] by THOMAS CAMPBELL CHANNEL FIRING by THOMAS HARDY I SHALL NOT CARE by SARA TEASDALE SONNET: TO J.M.K. by ALFRED TENNYSON THE SON; SOUTHERN OHIO MARKET TOWN by FREDERICK RIDGELY TORRENCE |