Tell me what we find to admire
In epaulets and scarlet coats
In men because they load and fire
And know the art of cutting throats?
And what care we for war and wrack
How kings and heroes rise and fall?
Look yonder, in his coffin black,
There lies the greatest of them all.
He captured many thousand guns;
He wrote "The Great" before his name;
And dying, only left his sons
The recollection of his shame.
Though more than half the world was his,
He died without a road of his own;
And borrowed from his enemies
Six foot of ground to lie upon.
He fought a thousand glorious wars,
And more than half the world was his,
And somewhere now, in yonder stars,
Can tell, mayhap, what greatness is.
-William Makepeace Thackeray
In epaulets and scarlet coats
In men because they load and fire
And know the art of cutting throats?
And what care we for war and wrack
How kings and heroes rise and fall?
Look yonder, in his coffin black,
There lies the greatest of them all.
He captured many thousand guns;
He wrote "The Great" before his name;
And dying, only left his sons
The recollection of his shame.
Though more than half the world was his,
He died without a road of his own;
And borrowed from his enemies
Six foot of ground to lie upon.
He fought a thousand glorious wars,
And more than half the world was his,
And somewhere now, in yonder stars,
Can tell, mayhap, what greatness is.
-William Makepeace Thackeray
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