BY sunny market-place and street <br />Wherever I go my drum I beat, <br />And wherever I go in my coat of red <br />The ribbons flutter about my head. <br /> <br />I seek recruits for wars to come - <br />For slaughterless wars I beat the drum, <br />And the shilling I give to each new ally <br />Is hope to live and courage to die. <br /> <br />I know that new recruits shall come <br />Wherever I beat the sounding drum, <br />Till the roar of the march by country and town <br />Shall shake the tottering Dagons down. <br /> <br />For I was objectless as they <br />And loitering idly day by day; <br />But whenever I heard the recruiters come, <br />I left my all to follow the drum.<br /><br />Robert Louis Stevenson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/prelude-4/
