Francis Duggan Poems

Horatius was a sixth century Roman hero glorified in Macaulay's Lays Of Ancient Rome
Horatius on the bridge who could forget it and it lives on as a classic English poem
He held the bridge against Lars Porsena's Etruscan army and gallantly with the bridge he went down
And his courage gave birth to an immortal legend he beat the odds and saved his old Hometown.
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Her tribe far from here north as the crow flies
The little black girl with the chestnut brown eyes
Her shoulder length hair dark as feather of crow
And there is great warmth in her cheery hello.
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By those interested in war history war history is read
But the winners write the war history or so it is said
That is how it is and will always be
What is true to one is not to another that's how it seems to me
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On the esplanade the cars buzz up and down
It is holiday time in the old seaside town
Young and old people out in the warm sunlight
On a Spring afternoon that is breezy and bright.
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You don't prove yourself a man by going off to war
To fight a fight not your's in a city afar
Against people you've never met or that you will never know
Why should one wish to make of a stranger a foe?
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Patriotism I can gladly live without
Though the old home place I often think about
Old Claraghatlea just out of Millstreet Town
With Clara mountain ever looking down
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He's a bit homesick and he's far away from home
From here it is a long way north to Rome
But with an Aussie wife and a two year old daughter and another on the way
He is in Victoria for what's known as the long stay.
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I know I am selfish and no need to tell me
That what in others I dislike in my own self I do see
But the seed of selfishness it is in us all
In our own ways we can be so very small.
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A bad habit they form as a young girl or boy
To have power over others some people enjoy
With personal power some are not satisfied
Their desire for top job they don't try for to hide
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He is not getting on with his unhappy wife
His Football Club his diversion from his problems in life
He looks forward to the weekend through each working day
To cheer on his team such is life some do say.
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