Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE RECRUITING SERGEANT; A MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT: AIR, by ISAAC BICKERSTAFFE 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! | 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 AN EXPOSTULATION by ISAAC BICKERSTAFFE |
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