 | Three Hundred Sonnets |  |
183
ARMY CASTE.
O 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
Sets caste and class each by itself aside,
The slave of fashion, luxury, and pride:
Ah! shame, to knit the brow and blanch the cheek!
Yon fierce-lipp'd major, rich and well-allied
And pampered 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.
| Three Hundred Sonnets | |