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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=408717" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Queen Hilda of Virland</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">PART I <br>Queen Hilda rode along the lines, <br>And she was young and fair; <br>And forward on her shoulders fell <br>The heavy braids of hair: <br>No gold was ever dug from earth <br>Like that burnished there – <br>No sky so blue as were her eyes <br>Had man seen anywhere. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Twas so her gay court poets sang, <br>And we believed it true. <br>But men must fight for golden hair <br>And die for eyes of blue! <br>Cheer after cheer, the long half mile <br>(It has been ever thus), <br>And evermore her winsome smile <br>She turned and turned on us. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Spring-burst over wood and sea, <br>The day was warm and bright – <br>Young Clarence stood on my left hand, <br>Old Withen on the right. <br>With fifteen thousand men, or more, <br>With plumes and banners gay, <br>To sail that day to foreign war, <br>And our ships swarmed on the bay. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Old Withen muttered in his beard I listened with a sigh – <br>&quot;Good Faith! for such a chit as that <br>Strong men must kill and die. <br>She'll back to her embroideree, <br>And fools that bow and smirk, <br>And we must sail across the sea <br>And go to other work. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;And wherefore? Wherefore,&quot; Withen said, <br>&quot;Is this red quarrel sought? <br>Because of clacking painted hags <br>And foreign fops at Court! <br>Because 'tis said a drunken king, <br>In lands we've never seen, <br>Said something foolish in his cups <br>Of our young silly queen! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;Good faith! in her old great-aunt's time <br>'Twere different, I vow: <br>If old Dame Ruth were here, she'd get <br>Some sharp advising now!&quot; <br>(At this a grim smile went about <br>For men could say in sooth <br>That none who'd seen her face could doubt <br>The fair fame of Dame Ruth.) </div><div style="margin:10px 0">If Clarence heard, he said no word; <br>His soul was fresh and clean; <br>The glory in his boyish eyes <br>Was shining for his Queen! <br>And as she passed, he gazed as one <br>An angel might regard. <br>(Old Withen looked as if he'd like <br>To take and smack her hard.) </div><div style="margin:10px 0">We only smiled at anything <br>That good old Withen said, <br>For he, half blind, through smoke and flame <br>Had borne her grandsire dead; <br>And he, in Virland's danger time, <br>Where both her brothers died, <br>Had ridden to red victory <br>By her brave father's side. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Queen Hilda rode along the lines <br>'Mid thundering cheers the while, <br>And each man sought – and seemed to get – <br>Her proud and happy smile. <br>Queen Hilda little dreamed – Ah, me! – <br>On what dark miry plain, <br>And what blood-blinded eyes would see <br>Her girlish smile again! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Queen Hilda rode on through the crowd, <br>We heard the distant roar; <br>We heard the clack of gear and plank, <br>The sailors on the shore. <br>Queen Hilda sought her &quot;bower&quot; to rest, <br>(For her day's work was done), <br>We kissed our wives – or others' wives – <br>And sailed ere set of sun. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">(Some sail because they're married men, <br>And some because they're free – <br>To come or not come back agen, <br>And such of old were we. <br>Some sail for fame and some for loot <br>And some for love – or lust – <br>And some to fish and some to shoot <br>And some because they must. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">(Some sail who know not why they roam <br>When they are come aboard, <br>And some for wives and loves at home, <br>And some for those abroad. <br>Some sail because the path is plain, <br>And some because they choose, <br>And some with nothing left to gain <br>And nothing left to lose. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">(And we have sailed from Virland, we, <br>For a woman's right or wrong, <br>And we are One, and One, and Three, <br>And Fifteen Thousand strong. <br>For Right or Wrong and Virland's fame – <br>You dared us and we come <br>To write in blood a woman's name <br>And take a letter home.) </div><div style="margin:10px 0">PART II <br>King Death came riding down the lines <br>And broken lines were they, <br>With scarce a soldier who could tell <br>Where friend or foeman lay: <br>The storm cloud looming over all, <br>Save where the west was red, <br>And on the field, of friend and foe, <br>Ten thousand men lay dead. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Boy Clarence lay in slush and blood <br>With his face deathly white; <br>Old Withen lay by his left side <br>And I knelt at his right. <br>And Clarence ever whispered, <br>Though with dying eyes serene: <br>&quot;I loved her for her girlhood,. <br>Will someone tell the Queen?&quot; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">And this old Withen's message, <br>When his time shortly came: <br>&quot;I loved her for her father's sake <br>But I fought for Virland's fame: <br>Go, take you this, a message <br>From me,&quot; Old Withen said, <br>&quot;Who knelt beside her father, <br>And his when they were dead: </div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;I who in sport or council, <br>I who as boy and man, <br>Would aye speak plainly to them <br>Were it Court, or battle's van – <br>(Nay! fear not, she will listen <br>And my words be understood, <br>And she will heed my message, <br>For I know her father's blood.) </div><div style="margin:10px 0">&quot;If shame there was – (I judge not <br>As I'd not be judged above: <br>The Royal blood of Virland <br>Was ever hot to love, <br>Or fight.) – the slander's wiped out, <br>As witness here the slain: <br>But, if shame there was, then tell her <br>Let it not be again.&quot; </div><div style="margin:10px 0">At home once more in Virland <br>The glorious Spring-burst shines: <br>Queen Hilda rides right proudly <br>Down our victorious lines. <br>The gaps were filled with striplings, <br>And Hilda wears a rose: <br>And what the wrong or right of it <br>Queen Hilda only knows. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">But, be it state or nation <br>Or castle, town, or shed, <br>Or be she wife or monarch <br>Or widowed or unwed – <br>Now this is for your comfort, <br>And it has ever been: <br>That, wrong or right, a man must fight <br>For his country and his queen.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Henry+Lawson">Henry Lawson</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=408717" data-title="Queen Hilda of Virland de Henry Lawson" data-description="PART I 
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 any..."></div>
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