Page:Poems - Southey (1799) volume 1.djvu/120

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104

Push'd on when my comrades fell dead at my side.
Drove the foe from the mouth of the Cannon away,
Fought, conquer'd and bled, all for sixpence a day.

JOHN.
And I too friend Samuel! have heard the shots rattle,
But we seamen rejoice in the play of the battle;
Tho' the chain and the grape-shot roll splintering around,
With the blood of our messmates tho' slippery the ground,
The fiercer the fight, still the fiercer we grow,
We heed not our loss so we conquer the foe,
And the hard battle won, so the prize be not sunk,
The Captain gets rich, and the Sailors get drunk.

SAMUEL.
God help the poor soldier when backward he goes
In disgraceful retreat thro' a country of foes!
No respite from danger by day or by night
He is still forced to fly, still o'ertaken to fight;
Every step that he takes he must battle his way,
He must force his hard meal from the peasant away;
No rest—and no hope, from all succour afar,
God forgive the poor Soldier for going to the war!