Sonnet 22 Battle of Marston Moor Ii
I let a boy, a Roundhead* boy, to live...
I knocked him down, and said, 'stay down my boy!
You're fourteen, and your mother waits to give
You letters** - HEY THEN! THAT is not a TOY!'
(For he'd stuck me a bit wi' a little knife,)
It only hurted summat, so I took it,
And said, 'stay DOWN! THESE words are worth your life!'
He cried a bit -- I took his hand and shook it,
Then, I pulled out the knife, and gave it back.
And knocked him out, then, and left him for dead,
'You'll wake up well alive, lad!' Then a 'crack'!
A Roundhead* bullet took me in the head.
So, I lay down a bit, to rest me eyes,
And I am lying there still, I must surmise...
* 'Roundhead' was the Kingsmen's name for the Parliamentarian forces of Oliver
Cromwell
** it was not uncommon, after a battle, once the boys were furloughed, for
family to send the boys back with letters for the men who still fought
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