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War and the Muses - "The Soldier's Return"
In the last CIC we ran a poem from The Olio, a magazine of miscellanea published in London during the 1820s and 1830s, titled “The Soldier’s Farewell,” by an otherwise unknown poet who signed his work “H.S.” The following is a companion piece to that bit of poor verse.
The Soldier’s Return.
The red sun brightly glows.
And his splendid beam throws
On England's sweet Isle, so lovely and fair;
And its emblem the rose,
As it blushingly glows,
With heavenly fragrance scents the pure air.
The bells blithely ringing,
The birds sweetly singing,
As if thoughts of grief and sorrow they'd spurn;
And nature Is singing
Her sweets, and is bringing
Fresh beauties to welcome the soldier's return.
Now fond hearts beating high,
As the moment draws nigh,
When the wand'rer they'll greet, so weary and worn ;
And the tear in the eye,
With the sweet happy sigh,
Shall welcome with joy the soldier's return.
Oh, what raptures when prest
To affection's dear breast,
And from its embrace no more to he torn!
And supremely we're blest,
When we find that sweet rest,
To which the soldier with joy doth return.
--H. S.
June 15, 1833
Fortunately for English literature, the age was also that of Coleridge, Tennyson, Macauley, and a number of other excellent poets.
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