That, some fair noon of balmy airs,

I shall indite a rude Field Message

If Colonels pry in my affairs;

Shall tell them simply, "It is early May,

And here the daffodils are almost old;

About that sentry-group I cannot say——

In fact it leaves me cold."

But, strange, I do not think the enemy

In Spring-tide on the Chersonnese

Was any whit less vile or venomy