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Title: The Ballad Of Titus Labienus
Author: Laura E. Richards [
More Titles by Richards]
Now Titus Labienus
Was stationed on a hill;
He sacrificed to Janus,
Then stood up stark and still'
He stood and gazed before him,
The best part of a week;
Then, as if anguish tore him,
Did Labienus speak:
"Oh, hearken, mighty Caesar I
Oh, Caius Julius C.,
It really seems to me, sir,
Things aren't as they should be.
I've looked into the future,
I've gazed beyond the years,
And as I'm not a butcher,
My heart is wrung to tears.
"All Gaul it is divided
In parts one, two and three,
And bravely you and I did,
In Britain o'er the sea.
In savage wilds the Teuton
Has felt your hand of steel,
Proud Rome you've set your boot on,
And ground it 'neath your heel.
"But looking down the ages,
There springs into my ken
A land not in your pages,
A land of coming men.
I would that it were handier
'Tis far across the sea:
'Tis Yankeedoodledandia,
The land that is to be.
"A land of stately cities,
A land of peace and truth:
But oh! the thousand pities!
A land of weeping youth.
A land of school and college,
Where youths and maidens go
A-seeking after knowledge,
But seeking it in woe.
"I hear the young men groaning!
I see the maidens fair,
With sighs and bitter moaning,
Tearing their long, fair hair.
And through the smoke of Janus
Their cry comes sad and shrill,
"Oh, Titus Labienus,
Come down from off that hill
"For centuries you've stood there,
And gazed upon the Swiss;
Yet never have withstood there
An enemy like this.
The misery of seeking,
The agony of doubt
Of who on earth is speaking,
And what 'tis all about."
"Now he had planned an action,
And brought his forces round;
But--well, there rose a faction,
And ran the thing aground.
And--their offence was heinous,
Yet Caesar had his will;
And Titus Labienus
Was stationed on a hill.
"'Then the Helvetii rallied,
To save themselves from wrack,
And from the towns they sallied,
And drove the Romans back.
The land was quite mounTAINous,
Yet they were put to flight;
And Titus Labienus
Was stationed on a height.
"'Then himself advised them
Upon the rear to fall;
But Dumnorix surprised them,
And sounded a recall.
Quoth he, "The gods sustain us!
These ills we'll still surmount!"
And Titus Labienus
Was stationed on a mount."
"Thus comes the cry to hand here
Across the western sea,
From Yankeedoodledandia,
The land that is to be.
My heart is wrung with sorrow;
Hot springs the pitying tear.
Pray, Julius C., to-morrow
Let me get down from here I
"Oh, send me to the valley!
Oh, send me to the town!
Bid me rebuff the sally,
Or cut the stragglers down;
Send me once more to battle
With Vercingetorix;
I'll drive his Gallic cattle,
And stop his Gallic tricks.
"Oh! sooner shall my legion
Around my standard fall;
In grim Helvetic region,
Or in galumphing Gaul;
Sooner the foe enchain us,
Sooner our life-blood spill,
Than Titus Labienus
Stand longer on the hill!"
[The end]
Charles G. D. Roberts's poem: Ballad Of Titus Labienus
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