War Songs

PREFACE. The aim of the editor in this volume has been, so far as was possible, to give a record ofthe wars of Britain as sung by her poets, and he would ask therefore that the word 46Warsongs be given the most liberal interpretation. Such an attempt can at the best be but, partially successful, for many of her greatest achievements have remained unsung, and still more have been recorded in verse that is little better than doggerel. Many of our ancient songs and ballads of war that have escaped oblivion, such as, for instance, the ballads of the Brave Lord Willoughby and d Sir Andrew Barton, hardly reach even the lower levels of poetry. There must therefore remain large gaps in any such record as the editor has had in view. He can only hope that he has left as few such gaps as possible. Some notable omissions there must indeed be owing to the exigencies of the law of copyright, but the editors debt to authors and publishers is so great, that even to make a bare mention of such omissions is perhaps ungracious. The compiling of such a record in song as this, needs in itself little apology. Whatever our views as to the evils of war and of the causes that give it birth, all may at least unite in admiration of the nobler elements of human nature which war inevitably calls forth. The editor hopes that it is this aspect of war which the present collection of poems will be found to emphasize. H. E. B. The editor desires to express his great indebtedness to the following writers and publishers for their kind permission to include copyright poems -. Mr. Rudyard Kipling and Messrs. Methuen for Ford o Kabul River and the Hymn before Action, from Barrack-room Ballads and The Seven Seas respectivelySir Arthur Conan Doyle for The Sqng of the Bow from I Songs of Action Smith Elder Mr. Henry Newbolt for Drakes Drum from The Island Race Elkin Matthews and Waggon Hill from The Sailing of the Long Ships John Murray Mr. W. G. Hole for The Road to Ladysmith from Poems Lyrical and Dramatic Elkin Matthews Professor Housman and Mr. Grant Richards for 1887 from A Shropshire Lad The Reverend L. MacLean Watt for The Grey Mother Messrs. Kegan Paul Co. for The Fight at Maldon from Mr. A. C. Auchmutys Poems of English Heroism The Walter Scott Publishing Company for I The Brave Cameron from the late Professor Blackies Lays of the Highlands and Islands Messrs. Macmillan for The Red Thread of Honour, I The Private of the Buffs, and The Return of the Guards from the late Sir F. H. Doyles Return of the Guards and for Ia Elizabeth at Tilbury from The Visions of England by the late Professor Palgrave CONTENTS. Boadicea, . W. Cowpcr. The Massacre of the Britons, . T. L. Peacock. The War Song of Dinas Vawr, . T. L. Peacock. The Fight at Maldon, . A. C. Auchmuty from the Anglo-Saxon. The Fatal Sisters, . T. Gray from the Norse. The Triumph of Owen, . T. Gray from the Welsh. The French at St. Edmundsbury, W. Shakespeare. Bruce to his Men at Bannockburn, R. Burns. The Song of the Bow, . Sir A. Conan Doyle. The Battle of Otterbourne, Anonymous. The Hunting of the Cheviot, . Anonymous. The Battle of Shrewsbury, W. Shakespeare. The Battle of Harlaw, Anonymous. King Henry V. before Harfleur, . W. Shakespeare. King Henry V. at Agincourt, . W. Shakespeare. 9 Page . I3 . 16 . 20 . 22 30 33 35 38 4 42 48 . 60 . 61 65 . 67 CONTENTS The Battle of Agincourt, . M. Drayton. Pibroch of Donuil Dhu, . Sir W. Scott. The Deathof Richard 111. Anonymous. Flodden Field, Sir W. Scott. Flodden. The End, W. E. Aytoun. The Flowers of the Forest, J. Elliott. Soldier, rest Sir W. Scott. Mary Ambree, . Anonymous. The Armada, Lord Macaulay. Elizabeth at Tilbury, F. T. Palgrave. Drakes Drum, H. Newbolt. Cavalier Tunes, . R. Browning...