The Jolly Beggars : I Am a Son of Mars
written in 1785
The Jolly Beggars : I Am a Son of Mars - meaning Summary
Veteran Pride and Hardship
A veteran speaker recounts his martial past and current poverty, presenting a mix of swagger, stoicism, and dark humor. He lists wounds and campaigns as badges of honor, remembers comrades and decisive fights, and admits he now begs with wooden limbs and tattered clothes. Despite hardship and homelessness, he retains pride, a taste for drink and companionship, and an undiminished readiness to follow the drum into battle. The poem contrasts public glory with private deprivation while insisting on the speaker’s enduring identity as a soldier and loyal compatriot.
Read Complete AnalysesI am a son of Mars who have been in many wars, And show my cuts and scars wherever I come; This here was for a wench, and that other in a trench, When welcoming the French at the sound of the drum. My Prenticeship I past where my Leader breath'd his last, When the bloody die was cast on the heights of Abram; And I served out my Trade when the gallant game was play'd, And the Moro low was laid at the sound of the drum. I lastly was with Curtis among the floating batt'ries, And there I left for witness, an arm and a limb; Yet let my Country need me, with Elliot to head me, I'd clatter on my stumps at the sound of a drum. And now tho' I must beg, with a wooden arm and leg, And many a tatter'd rag hanging over by bum, I'm as happy with my wallet, my bottle and my Callet, As when I us'd in scarlet to follow a drum. What tho', with hoary locks, I must stand the winter shocks, Beneath the woods and rocks oftentimes for a home, When the tother bag I sell and the tother bottle tell, I could meet a troop of Hell at the sound of a drum.
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