I.

HALF a league, half a league,

Half a league townward,

Boldly from Harvard Square,

Rode the five hundred.

What, a conductor there!

Put him out! Pay no fare!

Yelled they from Harvard Square,

Yelled the five hundred.

II.

Cives to right of them,

Cives to left of them,

Cives in front of them,

Shouted and thundered;

Stormed at with Billingsgate

Full at each beavered pate

Over the cobble-stones

(Rough on a fellow's bones)

Marched the five hundred.

III.

Flashed all their teeth laid bare,

Flashed as they cheered the fair;

Chaffing the unwashed there,

Chaffing the redolent, while

Democracy wondered.

Plunged in the torches' smoke

Straight down the street they broke;

Cheese-it and Peeler

Reeled from their classic joke, -

Reeled back confounded.

Then they marched back, but not,

Not the five hundred.

IV.

Cives to right of them,

Cives to left of them,

Cives behind them,

Shouted and thundered.

Flirting with many a belle

While torch and head-gear fell,

They that had marched so well (?)

Came o'er the cobble-stones,

Played out in legs and lungs,

All that was left of them, -

Left of five hundred.

V.

When can remembrance fade

Of that wild march they made,

While Athens wondered?

'Rah for the march they made!

'Rah for the Wild Brigade!

Tattered five hundred!

F. H. B.