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Title: Faithless Nelly Gray: A Pathetic Ballad
Author: Thomas Hood [
More Titles by Hood]
Ben Battle was a soldier bold,
And used to war's alarms;
But a cannon-ball took off his legs,
So he laid down his arms!
Now as they bore him off the field,
Said he, "Let others shoot,
For here I leave my second leg,
And the Forty-second Foot!"
The army-surgeons made him limbs:
Said he,--"They're only pegs:
But there's as wooden members quite,
As represent my legs!"
Now Ben he loved a pretty maid,
Her name was Nelly Gray;
So he went to pay her his devours,
When he'd devour'd his pay!
But when he called on Nelly Gray,
She made him quite a scoff;
And when she saw his wooden legs,
Began to take them off!
"O, Nelly Gray! O, Nelly Gray!
Is this your love so warm?
The love that loves a scarlet coat
Should be more uniform!"
Said she, "I loved a soldier once,
For he was blithe and brave;
But I will never have a man
With both legs in the grave!"
"Before you had those timber toes,
Your love I did allow,
But then, you know, you stand upon
Another footing now!"
"O, Nelly Gray! O, Nelly Gray!
For all your jeering speeches,
At duty's call, I left my legs
In Badajos's _breaches!_"
"Why, then," said she, "you've lost the feet
Of legs in war's alarms,
And now you cannot wear your shoes
Upon your feats of arms!"
"O, false and fickle Nelly Gray!
I know why you refuse:--
Though I've no feet--some other man
Is standing in my shoes!"
"I wish I ne'er had seen your face;
But, now, a long farewell!
For you will be my death:--alas!
You will not be my _Nell!_"
Now when he went from Nelly Gray,
His heart so heavy got--
And life was such a burthen grown,
It made him take a knot!
So round his melancholy neck
A rope he did entwine,
And, for his second time in life,
Enlisted in the Line!
One end he tied around a beam,
And then removed his pegs,
And, as his legs were off,--of course,
He soon was off his legs!
And there he hung, till he was dead
As any nail in town,--
For though distress had cut him up,
It could not cut him down!
A dozen men sat on his corpse,
To find out why he died--
And they buried Ben in four cross-roads,
With a _stake_ in his inside!
[The end]
Thomas Hood's poem: Faithless Nelly Gray: A Pathetic Ballad
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