Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BUDMOUTH DEARS, by THOMAS HARDY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: When we lay where budmouth beach is Last Line: Down? Variant Title(s): Hussar's Song Subject(s): Soldiers | ||||||||
WHEN we lay where Budmouth Beach is, O the girls were fresh as peaches With their tall and tossing figures and their eyes of blue and brown! And our hearts would ache with longing As we paced from our sing-songing With a smart Clink! Clink! up the Esplanade and down. They distracted and delayed us By the pleasant pranks they played us, And what marvel, then, if troopers, even of regiments of renown, On whom flashed those eyes divine, O, Should forget the countersign, O, As we tore Clink! Clink! back to camp above the town. Do they miss us much, I wonder, Now that war has swept us sunder, And we roam from where the faces smile to where the faces frown? And no more behold the features Of the fair fantastic creatures, And no more Clink! Clink! past the parlours of the town? Shall we once again there meet them? Falter fond attempts to greet them? Will the gay sling-jacket glow again beside the muslin gown? -- Will they archly quiz and con us With a sideway glance upon us, While our spurs Clink! Clink! up the Esplanade and down? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ALL ARMIES ARE THE SAME by ERNEST HEMINGWAY ABSENT WITH OFFICIAL LEAVE by RANDALL JARRELL PORT OF EMBARKATION by RANDALL JARRELL THE CONFESSION OF ST. JIM-RALPH by DENIS JOHNSON OPERATION MEMORY by DAVID LEHMAN AND THERE WAS A GREAT CALM' by THOMAS HARDY |
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