<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Soldier, Soldier</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Soldier</span>, soldier, off to the war,</p><p class="line">Take me a letter to my sweetheart O.</p><p class="line">He's gone away to France</p><p class="line">With his carbine and his lance,</p><p class="line">And a lock of brown hair of his sweetheart O.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Fair maid of London, happy may you be</p><p class="line">To know so much of your sweetheart O.</p><p class="line">There's not a handsome lad,</p><p class="line">To get the chance he's had,</p><p class="line">But would skip, with a kiss for his sweetheart O.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Soldier, soldier, whatever shall I do</p><p class="line">If the cruel Germans take my sweetheart O?</p><p class="line">They'll pen him in the sail</p><p class="line">And starve him thin and pale,</p><p class="line">With never a kind word from his sweetheart O.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Fair maid of London, is that all you see</p><p class="line">Of the lad you've taken for your sweetheart O?</p><p class="line">He'll make his prison ring</p><p class="line">With his God Save the King</p><p class="line">And his God bless the blue eyes of my sweetheart O!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Soldier, soldier, if by shot or shell</p><p class="line">They wound him, my dear lad, my sweetheart O,</p><p class="line">He'll lie bleeding in the rain</p><p class="line">And call me, all in vain,</p><p class="line">Crying for the fingers of his sweetheart O.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Pretty one, pretty one, now take a word from me:</p><p class="line">Don't you grudge the life-blood of your sweetheart O.</p><p class="line">For you must understand</p><p class="line">He gives it to our land,</p><p class="line">And proud should fly the colors of his sweetheart O.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Soldier, soldier, my heart is growing cold --</p><p class="line">If a German shot kill my sweetheart O!</p><p class="line">I could not lift my head</p><p class="line">If my dear love lay dead</p><p class="line">With his wide eyes waiting for his sweetheart O.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Poor child, poor child, go to church and pray,</p><p class="line">Pray God to spare you your sweetheart O.</p><p class="line">But if he live or die</p><p class="line">The English flag must fly,</p><p class="line">And England take care of his sweetheart O!</p></div><p class="byline">-- Maurice Hewlett.</p></body></html> · Great War