Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE RECRUITING SERGEANT; A MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT: AIR, by ISAAC BICKERSTAFFE



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE RECRUITING SERGEANT; A MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT: AIR, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: What a charming thing's a battle!
Last Line: What a charming thing's a battle!
Subject(s): Guns; Soldiers; Trumpets; War


WHAT a charming thing's a battle!
Trumpets sounding, drums a-beating;
Crack, crick, crack, the cannons rattle,
Every heart with joy elating.
With what pleasure are we spying,
From the front and from the rear,
Round us in the smoky air,
Heads and limbs and bullets flying!
Then the groans of soldiers dying,
Just like sparrows as it were:
At each pop,
Hundreds drop,
While the muskets prittle prattle.
Killed and wounded
Lie confounded:
What a charming thing's a battle!
But the pleasant joke of all
Is when to close attack we fall,
Like mad bulls each other butting,
Shooting, stabbing, maiming, cutting;
Horse and foot
All go to't,
Kill's the word, both men and cattle,
Then to plunder:
Blood and thunder,
What a charming thing's a battle!





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