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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=365916" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Day the Soldiers Came</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">The old man sat at his cottage door<br>As the soldiers came to town, <br>And laughed as the trucks went rumbling by, <br>Laughed as the soldiers frowned, <br>They carried their rifles high that day, <br>Marched past him by the score, <br>And scowled as the old man mocked them there, <br>As they waged their futile war! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The tanks sat threatening in the square, <br>The people stood in the street, <br>Watching the flood of khaki power, <br>The boots on the marching feet, <br>The General stood in his jeep that day<br>A scroll in his scrawny hand: <br>‘It's never too late to liberate<br>The folk in this tortured land! '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But then a ripple of laughter came<br>From the townsfolk standing there, <br>They seemed to enjoy a local joke, <br>A joke that they wouldn't share.<br>The soldiers were tense, bemused at that, <br>They'd rather the ripple of fear<br>They'd felt in a hundred similar towns<br>Since the war broke out that year.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The General barked, ‘Enough of that! <br>Where is your National Pride? <br>We've come to free you from servitude<br>And a great deal more, beside! '<br>But the old man, sat in his cottage seat<br>Had let out a great guffaw, <br>And the soldiers dragged him out of his chair, <br>To face the General's scorn.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">‘Why do you laugh, old man, ' he said, <br>‘I could shoot you in your pride! '<br>‘I'm sure you could, and probably would<br>As you scorch our countryside! <br>But what price honour, when history<br>Ascribes your deeds to your name, <br>Will shooting a poor old peasant man<br>Ring loud in your Hall of Fame? '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">‘Then why do you laugh? ' the General said, <br>‘The picture here is grim! <br>These soldiers fought, and died and bled, <br> You lack respect for them! '<br>‘This town has sat two thousand years, '<br>The old man said at last, <br>‘Was here when Hannibal's elephants stopped<br>To feed on the mountain grass.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">‘The Roman Legions passed through here<br>In their conquest and their might, <br>And Charlemagne's Grand Army<br>For a single, baleful night; <br>Even Napoleon Bonaparte<br>Conquered this little town, <br>For years, we had the Fascisti, and<br>The Nazis held us down.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">‘But where have their soldiers gone today, <br>They lie, each under his mound, <br>While we sit back, as your troops attack<br>And thrive in our little town.<br>You'll only be here for a moment more<br>Two lines on a history page, <br>Just one more army to pass through here<br>In your arrogance, and your rage! '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The army was there for a week or so, <br>But then, they had to withdraw, <br>The old man laughed as the soldiers passed, <br>He let out a great guffaw; <br>The Rebel General brought his tanks<br>And a speech that he had planned: <br>‘It's never too late to liberate<br>The folk in this tortured land! '</div><div style="margin:10px 0">18 August,2012</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=David+Lewis+Paget">David Lewis Paget</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=365916" data-title="The Day the Soldiers Came de David Lewis Paget" data-description="The old man sat at his cottage door
As the soldiers came to town, 
And laughed as the trucks went rumbling by, 
Laughed as the soldiers frowned, 
They carried their rifles high that day, 
Marched past him by the score, 
And scowled as the old man ..."></div>
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