#A Song for the Irish Militia #### Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition ### Background details and bibliographic information A Song for the Irish Militia ============================ Author: Thomas Osborne Davis ---------------------------- ### File Description T. W. RollestonElectronic edition compiled and proof corrections by Beatrix Färber, Juliette Maffet 1. First draft, revised and corrected.Extent of text: 897 words#### Publication CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College Cork College Road, Cork, Ireland—http://www.ucc.ie/celt (2012) Distributed by CELT online at University College, Cork, Ireland. Text ID Number: E850004-035Availability [RESTRICTED] Available with prior consent of the CELT programme for purposes of academic research and teaching only. #### Sources **Source**2. First published in the *Nation* on 1 February 1845. **Other writings by Thomas Davis**2. Thomas Davis, Essays Literary and Historical, ed. by D. J. O'Donoghue, Dundalk 1914. 3. Sir Charles Gavan Duffy (ed.), Thomas Davis, the memoirs of an Irish patriot, 1840-1846. 1890. [Reprinted entitled 'Thomas Davis' with an introduction of Brendan Clifford. Millstreet, Aubane Historical Society, 2000.] 4. Thomas Davis: selections from his prose and poetry. [Edited] with an introduction by T. W. Rolleston. London and Leipzig: T. Fisher Unwin (Every Irishman's Library). 1910. [Published in Dublin by the Talbot press, 1914.] 5. Thomas Osborne Davis, Literary and historical essays 1846. Reprinted 1998, Washington, DC: Woodstock Books. 6. Essays of Thomas Davis. New York, Lemma Pub. Corp. 1974, 1914 [Reprint of the 1914 ed. published by W. Tempest, Dundalk, Ireland, under the title 'Essays literary and historical'.] 7. Thomas Davis: essays and poems, with a centenary memoir, 1845-1945. Dublin, M.H. Gill and Son, 1945. [Foreword by an Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera.] 8. Angela Clifford, Godless colleges and mixed education in Ireland: extracts from speeches and writings of Thomas Wyse, Daniel O'Connell, Thomas Davis, Charles Gavan Duffy, Frank Hugh O'Donnell and others. Belfast: Athol, 1992. Thomas Osborne Davis A Song for the Irish Militia in , Ed. T. W. Rolleston Thomas Davis: Selections from his prose and poetry. The Talbot Press, Dublin and London, ([1910]) page 350–352### Encoding #### Project Description CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts #### Editorial Declaration ##### Correction Text has been proof-read twice and parsed. ##### Normalization The electronic text represents the edited text. ##### Quotation There is no direct speech. ##### Hyphenation Soft hyphens are silently removed. When a hyphenated word (and subsequent punctuation mark) crosses a page-break, this break is marked after the completion of the word (and punctuation mark). ##### Segmentation div0=the poem. Page-breaks are marked pb n="". ##### Standard Values Dates are standardized in the ISO form yyyy-mm-dd. ##### Interpretation Names of persons, places or organisations are not tagged. ### Profile Description Created: by Thomas Davis (1840s) #### Use of language ##### Language: [EN] The text is in English. ### Revision History * (2012-01-31) Beatrix Färber (ed.) * File proofed (2), file parsed; SGML and HTML files created. * (2012-01-16) Juliette Maffet (ed.) * File proofed (1); header created; structural and content markup applied. * (1996) Audrey Murphy (ed.) * Text captured by scanning. --- #### Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition: E850004-035 ### A Song for the Irish Militia: Author: Thomas Osborne Davis --- p.350 1. The tribune's tongue and poet's pen May sow the seed in prostrate men ; But 'tis the soldier's sword alone Can reap the crop so bravely sown! No more I'll sing nor idly pine, But train my soul to lead a line— A soldier's life's the life for me— A soldier's death, so Ireland's free! --- p.351 4. No foe would fear your thunder words, If 'twere not for your lightning swords— If tyrants yield when millions pray, 'Tis less they link in war array ; Nor peace itself is safe, but when The sword is sheathed by fighting men— A soldier's life's the life for me— A soldier's death, so Ireland's free! 5. The rifle brown and sabre bright Can freely speak and nobly write— What prophets preached the truth so well As HOFER, BRIAN, BRUCE, and TEET ? God guard the creed these heroes taught— That blood-bought Freedom's cheaply bought A soldier's life's the life for me— A soldier's death, so Ireland's free! 6. Then, welcome be the bivouac, The hardy stand, and fierce attack, Where pikes will tame their carbineers, And rifles thin their bay'neteers, And every field the island through Will show ‘what Irishmen can do!’ A soldier's life's the life for me— A soldier's death so Ireland's free! 7. Yet, 'tis not strength and 'tis not steel Alone can make the English reel ; But wisdom, working day by day, Till comes the time for passion's sway— --- p.352 The patient dint and powder shock, Can blast an empire like a rock. A soldier's life's the life for me— A soldier's death, so Ireland's free! 8. The tribune's tongue and poet's pen May sow the seed in slavish men ; But 'tis the soldier's sword alone Can reap the harvest when 'tis grown. No more I'll sing, no more I'll pine, But train my soul to lead a line— A soldier's life's the life for me— A soldier's death, so Ireland's free.