A.E.Housman 1896
Ian Robb
Arrowsmith:Robb Trio: “Ian came across this poem when browsing through Housman’s dark and pessimistic collection, A Shropshire Lad, published in 1896. The New Mistress, AKA Queen Victoria, probably seduced many a disillusioned or rejected young man into serving-and often dying for-her imperial ambitions.ÿ Ian re-purposed the second stanza as a chorus and wrote the tune.”
Chorus: “I will go where I am wanted, to a lady born and bred Who will dress me free for nothing in a uniform of red; She will not be sick to see me if I only keep it clean: I will go where I am wanted for a soldier of the Queen.” “Oh, sick I am to see you, will you never let me be? You may be good for something, but you are not good for me. Oh, go where you are wanted, for you are not wanted here.”ÿ And that was all the fond farewell when I parted from my dear. “I will go where I am wanted, for the sergeant does not mind; He may be sick to see me but he treats me very kind: He gives me beer and breakfast and a ribbon for my cap, And I never knew a sweetheart spend her money on a chap.” “I will go where I am wanted, where there’s room for one or two, And the men are none too many for the work there is to do; Where the standing line wears thinner and the dropping dead lie thick; And the enemies of England they shall see me and be sick.”