Mary Leslie

Before Vittoria, June 20, 1813


O Mary Leslie, blithe and shrill
    The bugles blew for Spain:
And you below the Castle Hill
    Stood in the crowd your lane.
Then hearts were wild to watch us pass,
    Yet laith to let us go!
While mine said, "Fare-ye-well, my lass!"
    And yours, "God keep my Jo!"

Here by the bivouac fire, above
    These fields of savage play,
I'll lift my love to meet thy love
    Twa thousand miles away,

Where yonder, yonder by the stars,
    Nightlong there rins a burn,
And maids with lovers at the wars
    May list their wraiths' return.

More careless yet my spirit grows
    Of fame, more sick of blood:
But I can think of Badajoz,
    And yet that God is good.
Beyond the siege, beyond the stour,
    Beyond the sack of towns,
I reach to pluck ae lily-floo'r
    Where leaders press for crowns.

O Mary! lily! bow'd and wet
    With mair than mornin's rain!
The bugles up the Lawnmarket
    Shall sound us home again.

Then fare-ye-well, these foreign lands,
    And be damn'd their bitter drouth.
With your dear face between my hands
    And the cup held to my mouth,
    My love,
It's clean cup to my mouth!

Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, born on November 21, 1863, and died on May 12, 1944, was a Cornish writer, who published under the pen name Q. His legacy includes a vast body of critical and anthological work, most notably 'The Oxford Book of English Verse 1250–1900'. Quiller-Couch was knighted in 1910 and also served as a professor of English at the University of Cambridge. His works have influenced many, including writers like Virginia Woolf.

Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

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Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, Simple Poetry

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Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, Simple Poetry

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Titania.

Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, Simple Poetry

English

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