Come all young men and maidens of high and low degree, I pray now give attention and listen unto me, What hardships many has endured who went across the main, Their precious lives to venture all for the Queen of Spain. * * * The usage there they do endure is dreadful to relate, For any trifling charges, most awful is their fate, Tied up like dogs, and sorely flogged till they are rent in pain, That's the usage they receive who fight all for the Queen of Spain. Some hundreds have returned home covered with wounds and scars, They have received when fighting in the Spanish wars, But glad to think they are returned to their native land again, Tho' they rue the day they went to fight all for the Queen of Spain. Some thousands were compelled to go, as they no work could get, While many others went and left their families to fret. Many a mother cries, "My darling son," and weeps in grief and pain, And children cry, "My father died on the battlefield in Spain." May Providence protect them back unto their native shore, And we hope for foreigners to fight they never will go more, We hear like dogs the men are used, when they go o'er the main, Their precious lives to venture all for the Queen of Spain. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DAWN BEHIND NIGHT by ISAAC ROSENBERG UPLANDS IN MAY by CARL SANDBURG THE WANTS OF MAN by JOHN QUINCY ADAMS TO MY DEAR AND LOVING HUSBAND by ANNE BRADSTREET THE CELLO by RICHARD WATSON GILDER VOICES OF THE NIGHT: PRELUDE by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW |