Classic Poem

" O hark, the drums do beat, my love, I can no longer stay.
The bugle calls are sounding and we must march away.
We're ordered out of Portsmouth and for many a weary mile,
To join the British army on the banks of the Nile."

" O Willie, dearest William, don't leave me here to mourn,
Or I must curse and rue the day that ever I was born.
For parting from my love would be like parting from my life,
So stay at home, dear William, and I will be your wife."

" O Nancy, dearest Nancy, sure that would never do,
The government has ordered and we are bound to go.
The government has ordered and the Queen she gives command
And I am bound away, my love, to serve in a foreign land."

" Then I'll cut off my yellow hair and I'll go along with you,
I'll dress myself in uniform and I'll see Egypt too.
I'll march beneath your banner while fortune it do smile
And we'll comfort one another on the banks of the Nile."

" Oh your waist is too slender, love, your fingers are too small,
And the sultry sun of Egypt your rosy cheeks would spoil.
Your delicate constitution will not stand the unwholesome soil
And the dry and sandy deserts on the banks of the Nile."

" My curse attend that cruel war and the hour it began,
For it has robbed our country of many the gallant man.
They've robbed us of our sweethearts and protectors of the soil
And their blood does steep the grass that's deep upon the banks of the Nile."

" O when the war is over, love, back home I will return
Unto my wife and family I've left behind to mourn,
And we'll take up the plough, my boys, and till the fertile soil,
No more we'll go a-roving on the banks of the Nile."