YES, Jim hez gone—ye didn't know? He's fightin' at the front. It's him as bears 'his country's hopes', An' me as bears the brunt. W'en war bruk out Jim 'lowed he'd go— He allus loved a scrap— Ye see, the home warn't jest the place Fer sech a lively chap. O' course, the work seems ruther hard; The kids is ruther small— It ain't that I am sore at Jim, I envy him—that's all. He doesn't know what he's about An' cares still less, does Jim... With all his loose an' roarin' ways I wisht that I was him. It makes him glad an' drunken-like That music an' the smoke; An' w'en they shout, the whole thing seems A picnic an' a joke. Oh, yellin' puts a heart in ye, An' stren'th into yer blows— I wisht that I could hears those cheers Washin' the neighbors clo'es... It's funny how some things work out— Life is so strange, Lord love us— Here am I, workin' night an' day To keep a roof above us; An' Jim is somewhere in the south, An' Jim ain't really bad, A-runnin' round an' raisin' Cain, An' stabbin' some kid's dad. But that's w'at men are made for—eh? W'at else is there for me But workin' on till Jim comes home, Sick of his bloody spree. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DEPARTURE IN THE DARK by CECIL DAY LEWIS ON HEARING A LITTLE MUSIC-BOX by JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT TO THE UNKNOWN EROS: BOOK 1: 10. THE TOYS by COVENTRY KERSEY DIGHTON PATMORE VALENTINES TO MY MOTHER: 1880 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI TO JANE: THE RECOLLECTION by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS HOOD by BARTHOLOMEW SIMMONS |