StoryTitle("caps", "The Song in Camp") ?>
Song in Camp" is Bayard Taylor's best effort as far as young boys and
girls are concerned. It is a most valuable poem. I once heard a clergyman in
Chicago use it as a text for his sermon. Since then "Annie Laurie" has become
the song of the Labour party. "The Song in Camp" voices a universal
feeling. (1825-78.)
PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Give us a song!\" the soldiers cried,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The outer trenches guarding,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When the heated guns of the camps allied", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Grew weary of bombarding.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The dark Redan, in silent scoff,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Lay, grim and threatening, under;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the tawny mound of the Malakoff", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "No longer belched its thunder.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "There was a pause. A guardsman said,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"We storm the forts to-morrow;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Sing while we may, another day", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Will bring enough of sorrow.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They lay along the battery's side,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Below the smoking cannon:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Brave hearts, from Severn and from Clyde,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And from the banks of Shannon.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They sang of love, and not of fame;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Forgot was Britain's glory:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Each heart recalled a different name,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "But all sang \"Annie Laurie.\"", "") ?>
PagePoem(65, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Voice after voice caught up the song,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Until its tender passion", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Rose like an anthem, rich and strong,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Their battle-eve confession.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Dear girl, her name he dared not speak,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "But, as the song grew louder,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Something upon the soldier's cheek", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Washed off the stains of powder.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Beyond the darkening ocean burned", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The bloody sunset's embers,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "While the Crimean valleys learned", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "How English love remembers.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And once again a fire of hell", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Rained on the Russian quarters,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With scream of shot, and burst of shell,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And bellowing of the mortars!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And Irish Nora's eyes are dim", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "For a singer, dumb and gory;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And English Mary mourns for him", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Who sang of \"Annie Laurie.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Sleep, soldiers! still in honoured rest", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Your truth and valour wearing:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The bravest are the tenderest,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The loving are the daring.", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("100", SmallCapsText("Bayard Taylor.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>