The Drum
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- I hate that drum's discordant sound,
- Parading round, and round, and round:
- To thoughtless youth it pleasure yields,
- And lures from cities and from fields,
- To sell their liberty for charms
- Of tawdry lace, and glittering arms;
- And when Ambition's voice commands,
- To march, and fight, and fall, in foreign lands.
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- I hate that drum's discordant sound,
- Parading round, and round, and round;
- To me it talks of ravag'd plains,
- And burning towns, and ruin'd swains,
- And mangled limbs, and dying groans,
- And widows' tears, and orphans' moans;
- And all that Misery's hand bestows,
- To fill the catalogue of human woes.
The ode is sometimes referred to as a Retort on Mordaunt's "The Call" but there is no evidence that Scott knew of Thomas Osbert Mordaunt or his poem. The second verse of the poem adorns the display panel in the Civil War at Pendennis Castle Museum, Falmouth, Cornwall, UK.
In the finale of the first season of the television series Tour of Duty, the character Roger Horn temporarily deserts his platoon and is heard reciting the first verse of John Scott's strongly pacifist Ode Against Recruiting - "I hate that Drum's discordant sound ..."
Read more about this topic: John Scott Of Amwell