BY sunny market-place and street
Wherever I go my drum I beat,
And wherever I go in my coat of red
The ribbons flutter about my head.
I seek recruits for wars to come –
For slaughterless wars I beat the drum,
And the shilling I give to each new ally
Is hope to live and courage to die.
I know that new recruits shall come
Wherever I beat the sounding drum,
Till the roar of the march by country and town
Shall shake the tottering Dagons down.
For I was objectless as they
And loitering idly day by day;
But whenever I heard the recruiters come,
I left my all to follow the drum.
(Robert Louis Stevenson)
More Poetry from Robert Louis Stevenson:
- After Reading Antony and Cleopatra (Robert Louis Stevenson Poems)
- Ad Martialem (Robert Louis Stevenson Poems)
- Autumn Fires (Robert Louis Stevenson Poems)
- Dedicatory Poem For "Underwoods" (Robert Louis Stevenson Poems)
- From a Railway Carriage (Robert Louis Stevenson Poems)
- I Love To Be Warm By The Red Fireside (Robert Louis Stevenson Poems)