Chillanwallah, Chillanwallah! <br />Where our brothers fought and bled, <br />O thy name is natural music <br />And a dirge above the dead! <br />Though we have not been defeated, <br />Though we can't be overcome, <br />Still, whene'er thou art repeated, <br />I would fain that grief were dumb. <br /> <br />Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah! <br />'Tis a name so sad and strange, <br />Like a breeze through midnight harpstrings <br />Ringing many a mournful change; <br />But the wildness and the sorrow <br />Have a meaning of their own - <br />Oh, whereof no glad to-morrow <br />Can relieve the dismal tone! <br /> <br />Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah! <br />'Tis a village dark and low, <br />By the bloody Jhelum river <br />Bridged by the foreboding foe; <br />And across the wintry water <br />He is ready to retreat, <br />When the carnage and the slaughter <br />Shall have paid for his defeat. <br /> <br />Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah! <br />'Tis a wild and dreary plain, <br />Strewn with plots of thickest jungle, <br />Matted with the gory stain. <br />There the murder-mouthed artillery, <br />In the deadly ambuscade, <br />Wrought the thunder of its treachery <br />On the skeleton brigade. <br /> <br />Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah! <br />When the night set in with rain, <br />Came the savage plundering devils <br />To their work among the slain; <br />And the wounded and the dying <br />In cold blood did share the doom <br />Of their comrades round them lying, <br />Stiff in the dead skyless gloom. <br /> <br />Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah! <br />Thou wilt be a doleful chord, <br />And a mystic note of mourning <br />That will need no chiming word; <br />And that heart will leap with anguish <br />Who may understand thee best; <br />But the hopes of all will languish <br />Till thy memory is at rest.<br /><br />George Meredith<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/chillanwallah/
