 | Lyrics: By Martin F. Tupper |  |
201
Caste.
Would that a spirit kindlier and less cold,More brotherly, more equal, could be seen
Those members of one family between,
Our troops and their commanders!—All are bold,
All heroes in the field; but hard routine
Too strongly separate makes all beside,
By dint of fashion, luxury, and pride:
O shame, to knit the brow and blanch the cheek!
The fierce-lipp'd major, rich and well-allied,
And pamper'd up for pleasures at his mess,
To these poor privates hardly deigns to speak
And has no heart to cheer them in distress:—
Haste, nobler natures,—those old barriers break,
And gladden comrades by new kindliness!
| Lyrics: By Martin F. Tupper | |