More poetry

Over the years certain bits of poetry seem to have been absorbed into normal usage. For example I have heard people say things like 'The boy stood on the burning deck' and 'The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel's dead' without knowing which poems they are quoting (or sometimes misquoting) from or which poets wrote them.

In the latter case the misquote is not from the first line of the poem VITAI LAMPADA (The Torch of Life) by Sir Henry Newbolt, but from the first line of the second stanza.

VITAI LAMPADA

There's a breathless hush in the Close to-night -
Ten to make and the match to win -
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
But his Captain's hand on his shoulder smote
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

The sand of the desert is sodden red, -
Red with the wreck of a square that broke; -
The Gatling's jammed and the colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death has brimmed his banks,
And England's far, and Honour a name,
But the voice of schoolboy rallies the ranks,
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

This is the word that year by year
While in her place the School is set
Every one of her sons must hear,
And none that hears it dare forget.
This they all with a joyful mind
Bear through life like a torch in flame,
And falling fling to the host behind -
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"

The title is taken from a quotation by Lucretius and refers to how a future soldier learns selfless commitment to duty whilst playing cricket on Clifton College's famous Close. The poem uses the events of the Battle of Abu Klea in the Sudan in January 1885 as a backdrop for the second stanza. The Colonel referred to is Frederick Gustavus Burnaby (one of my heroes!), who was killed during the battle when a Gardner Machine Gun (not a Gatling as stated in the poem) jammed, and almost caused the Mahdists to penetrate the British square.

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'The boy stood on the burning deck' is the first line of Felicia Dorothea Hemans's poem CASABIANCA, which tells the story of Giocante de Casabianca. He stayed on the deck of the French warship Orient (his father's ship) during the Battle of the Nile despite the fact that the ship was burning and later exploded when the fire reached the powder magazine.

Unfortunately I've never been able to take the poem seriously since I read Spike Milligan's parody:

The boy stood on the burning deck
Whence all but he had fled –
Twit!