Old Year Leaves Being Old Verses Revised: By H. T. Mackenzie Bell ... New Edition |
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LINES
ON PASSING IN AN EXPRESS TRAIN THROUGH BADAJOZ,
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 | Old Year Leaves |  |
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LINES ON PASSING IN AN EXPRESS TRAIN THROUGH BADAJOZ,
NOTED FOR ITS FAMOUS SIEGE DURING THE PENINSULAR WAR.
And is this Badajoz? where once was heard
The clash of arms, and breaching cannons' roar,
Where from the dim-lit parallels came forth
The forlorn hope at Duty's stern command?
Where swords and bayonets bristled on cold walls,
And multitudes of marksmen sought to stay
The assailing columns in their onward course?
Where, when the town was gained, grim Plunder stalked
Amid its devastated streets, and made
Them ghastlier even than War?
Years yield strange fruit
Of alteration in forsaken paths;
Yet was I strangely struck with the great change
Wrought here in Badajoz.
The clash of arms, and breaching cannons' roar,
Where from the dim-lit parallels came forth
The forlorn hope at Duty's stern command?
Where swords and bayonets bristled on cold walls,
And multitudes of marksmen sought to stay
The assailing columns in their onward course?
Where, when the town was gained, grim Plunder stalked
Amid its devastated streets, and made
Them ghastlier even than War?
Years yield strange fruit
Of alteration in forsaken paths;
Yet was I strangely struck with the great change
Wrought here in Badajoz.
Can it be true
That here a most prosaic railway-station
Is now erected, with its telegraph,
Poor restaurant, and porters to be ‘tipped’?
And that of travellers, who tread its platform
When trains a moment stop, scarce any think
Of that bold siege which for all coming years
Has blazoned ‘Badajoz’ on Fame's high scroll?
That here a most prosaic railway-station
Is now erected, with its telegraph,
120
And that of travellers, who tread its platform
When trains a moment stop, scarce any think
Of that bold siege which for all coming years
Has blazoned ‘Badajoz’ on Fame's high scroll?
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