free-verse161 lines

Queen Hilda Of Virland

by Henry Lawson

Queen Hilda rode along the lines,

And she was young and fair;

And forward on her shoulders fell

The heavy braids of hair:

No gold was ever dug from earth

Like that burnished there,

No sky so blue as were her eyes

Had man seen anywhere.

'Twas so her gay court poets sang,

And we believed it true.

But men must fight for golden hair

And die for eyes of blue!

Cheer after cheer, the long half mile

(It has been ever thus),

And evermore her winsome smile

She turned and turned on us.

The Spring-burst over wood and sea,

The day was warm and bright,

Young Clarence stood on my left hand,

Old Withen on the right.

With fifteen thousand men, or more,

With plumes and banners gay,

To sail that day to foreign war,

And our ships swarmed on the bay.

Old Withen muttered in his beard I listened with a sigh,

"Good Faith! for such a chit as that

Strong men must kill and die.

She'll back to her embroideree,

And fools that bow and smirk,

And we must sail across the sea

And go to other work.

"And wherefore? Wherefore," Withen said,

"Is this red quarrel sought?

Because of clacking painted hags

And foreign fops at Court!

Because 'tis said a drunken king,

In lands we've never seen,

Said something foolish in his cups

Of our young silly queen!

"Good faith! in her old great-aunt's time

'Twere different, I vow:

If old Dame Ruth were here, she'd get

Some sharp advising now!"

(At this a grim smile went about

For men could say in sooth

That none who'd seen her face could doubt

The fair fame of Dame Ruth.)

If Clarence heard, he said no word;

His soul was fresh and clean;

The glory in his boyish eyes

Was shining for his Queen!

And as she passed, he gazed as one

An angel might regard.

(Old Withen looked as if he'd like

To take and smack her hard.)

We only smiled at anything

That good old Withen said,

For he, half blind, through smoke and flame

Had borne her grandsire dead;

And he, in Virland's danger time,

Where both her brothers died,

Had ridden to red victory

By her brave father's side.

Queen Hilda rode along the lines

'Mid thundering cheers the while,

And each man sought, and seemed to get,

Her proud and happy smile.

Queen Hilda little dreamed, Ah, me!,

On what dark miry plain,

And what blood-blinded eyes would see

Her girlish smile again!

Queen Hilda rode on through the crowd,

We heard the distant roar;

We heard the clack of gear and plank,

The sailors on the shore.

Queen Hilda sought her "bower" to rest,

(For her day's work was done),

We kissed our wives, or others' wives,

And sailed ere set of sun.

(Some sail because they're married men,

And some because they're free,

To come or not come back agen,

And such of old were we.

Some sail for fame and some for loot

And some for love, or lust,

And some to fish and some to shoot

And some because they must.

(Some sail who know not why they roam

When they are come aboard,

And some for wives and loves at home,

And some for those abroad.

Some sail because the path is plain,

And some because they choose,

And some with nothing left to gain

And nothing left to lose.

(And we have sailed from Virland, we,

For a woman's right or wrong,

And we are One, and One, and Three,

And Fifteen Thousand strong.

For Right or Wrong and Virland's fame,

You dared us and we come

To write in blood a woman's name

And take a letter home.)

King Death came riding down the lines

And broken lines were they,

With scarce a soldier who could tell

Where friend or foeman lay:

The storm cloud looming over all,

Save where the west was red,

And on the field, of friend and foe,

Ten thousand men lay dead.

Boy Clarence lay in slush and blood

With his face deathly white;

Old Withen lay by his left side

And I knelt at his right.

And Clarence ever whispered,

Though with dying eyes serene:

"I loved her for her girlhood,.

Will someone tell the Queen?"

And this old Withen's message,

When his time shortly came:

"I loved her for her father's sake

But I fought for Virland's fame:

Go, take you this, a message

From me," Old Withen said,

"Who knelt beside her father,

And his when they were dead:

"I who in sport or council,

I who as boy and man,

Would aye speak plainly to them

Were it Court, or battle's van,

(Nay! fear not, she will listen

And my words be understood,

And she will heed my message,

For I know her father's blood.)

"If shame there was, (I judge not

As I'd not be judged above:

The Royal blood of Virland

Was ever hot to love,

Or fight.), the slander's wiped out,

As witness here the slain:

But, if shame there was, then tell her

Let it not be again."

At home once more in Virland

The glorious Spring-burst shines:

Queen Hilda rides right proudly

Down our victorious lines.

The gaps were filled with striplings,

And Hilda wears a rose:

And what the wrong or right of it

Queen Hilda only knows.

But, be it state or nation

Or castle, town, or shed,

Or be she wife or monarch

Or widowed or unwed,

Now this is for your comfort,

And it has ever been:

That, wrong or right, a man must fight

For his country and his queen.