Click in the field, then press CTRL+C to copy the HTML code
<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=510712" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Brown Bess</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Army Musket--1700-1815</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br>In the days of lace-ruffles, perukes and brocade<br>Brown Bess was a partner whom none could despise--<br>An out-spoken, flinty-lipped, brazen-faced jade,<br>With a habit of looking men straight in the eyes-- <br>At Blenheim and Ramillies fops would confess<br>They were pierced to the heart by the charms of Brown Bess.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Though her sight was not long and her weight was not small,<br>Yet her actions were winning, her language was clear; <br>And everyone bowed as she opened the ball<br>On the arm of some high-gaitered, grim grenadier.<br>Half Europe admitted the striking success<br>Of the dances and routs that were given by Brown Bess.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When ruffles were turned into stiff leather stocks,<br>And people wore pigtails instead of perukes,<br>Brown Bess never altered her iron-grey locks.<br>She knew she was valued for more than her looks.<br>'Oh, powder and patches was always my dress,<br>And I think am killing enough,' said Brown Bess.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So she followed her red-coats, whatever they did,<br>From the heights of Quebec to the plains of Assaye,<br>From Gibraltar to Acre, Cape Town and Madrid, <br>And nothing about her was changed on the way;<br>(But most of the Empire which now we possess <br>Was won through those years by old-fashioned Brown Bess.)</div><div style="margin:10px 0">In stubborn retreat or in stately advance,<br>From the Portugal coast to the cork-woods of Spain,<br>She had puzzled some excellent Marshals of France<br>Till none of them wanted to meet her again:<br>But later, near Brussels, Napoleon--no less--<br>Arranged for a Waterloo ball with Brown Bess.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She had danced till the dawn of that terrible day--<br>She danced till the dusk of more terrible night,<br>And before her linked squares his battalions gave way,<br>And her long fierce quadrilles put his lancers to flight:<br>And when his gilt carriage drove off in the press, <br>'I have danced my last dance for the world!' said Brown Bess.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">If you go to Museums--there's one in Whitehall--<br>Where old weapons are shown with their names writ beneath,<br>You will find her, upstanding, her back to the wall,<br>As stiff as a ramrod, the flint in her teeth.<br>And if ever we English had reason to bless<br>Any arm save our mothers', that arm is Brown Bess!</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Rudyard+Kipling">Rudyard Kipling</a><div class=q>
<img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share">
<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=510712" data-title="Brown Bess de Rudyard Kipling" data-description="The Army Musket--1700-1815


In the days of lace-ruffles, perukes and brocade
Brown Bess was a partner whom none could despise--
An out-spoken, flinty-lipped, brazen-faced jade,
With a habit of looking men straight in the eyes-- 
At Blenheim and R..."></div>
</div>
</div>