T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Sodger Laddie
By Robert Burns (17591796)(From The Jolly Beggars) I ONCE was a maid, tho’ I cannot tell when, | |
An’ still my delight is in proper young men; | |
Some one of a troop of dragoons was my daddie, | |
No wonder I’m fond of a sodger laddie. | |
The first of my loves was a swagg’rin’ blade, | 5 |
To rattle the thundering drum was his trade; | |
His leg was so tight, and his cheek was so ruddy, | |
Transported I was with my sodger laddie. | |
But the godly old chaplain left him in the lurch, | |
The sword I forsook for the sake of the church, | 10 |
He ventur’d the soul, and I risk’d the body, | |
’Twas then I proved false to my sodger laddie. | |
Full soon I grew sick of my sanctified sot, | |
The regiment at large for a husband I got; | |
From the gilded spontoon to the life I was ready, | 15 |
I asked no more but a sodger laddie. | |
But the peace it reduc’d me to beg in despair, | |
Till I met my old boy at a Cunningham fair; | |
His rags regimental they flutter’d so gaudy, | |
My heart it rejoic’d at my sodger laddie. | 20 |
An’ now I have liv’d—I know not how long, | |
An’ still I can join in a cup or a song; | |
But whilst with both hands I can hold the glass steady, | |
Here’s to thee, my hero, my sodger laddie. | |