<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The New Recruit</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">The</span> lads were once my comrades,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">They stay at home content.</p><p class="line">And now's the time of cricket,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">They count the days well spent.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">They walk with girls o' Sundays,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">All in their Sunday clothes;</p><p class="line">And of a Sunday evening</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Go where good liquor flows.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Their way's no longer my way,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">For I must follow now</p><p class="line">The drum-tap and the bugle,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">While they're for shop and plough.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Good-bye, good-bye, kind people,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And all I leave behind,</p><p class="line">To girls that used to kiss me,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To one was never kind.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Good-bye, my girl unwilling,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">I shall not vex you sore,</p><p class="line">For I have taken the shilling</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And I come home no more.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I heard the drums a-drumming,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And I ran out to see;</p><p class="line">The soldiers and the fighting,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">They mattered nought to me.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Good-bye, my girl that grieved me.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The bugles whistled, Come.</p><p class="line">And I, -- stepped in the roadway</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And marched beside the drum.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Lord, I was proud, uplifted.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">I held my head so high;</p><p class="line">And all the girls were doating</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">With love as we went by!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The boys who stood and jeered me</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">May live to three-score-ten,</p><p class="line">While I'm cut down at morning</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Among the fighting men.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">But Lord, the people shouting!</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The glory tasted sweet,</p><p class="line">And the eyes of the girls all doating</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">As we marched down the street.</p></div></body></html> · Great War