View source for A Lay of the Links

[[File:to-day-1893-11-11-p8-a-lay-of-the-links.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[To-Day]] (11 november 1893, p. 8).]]

''A Lay of the Links'' is a poem written by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] first published in [[To-Day]] on 11 november 1893.

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== Music ==
''Music translated by AI from the original music sheet below.''

{{audio|to-day-1894-04-14-a-lay-of-the-links-p316-317.mp3}}

== Editions ==

* in ''[[To-Day]]'' (11 november 1893 [UK]) 2 illustrations
* in ''[[To-Day]]'' (14 april 1894 [UK]) music sheets by [[Cecil Stanley]]
* in ''[[Nation]]'' (24 november 1898 [US])
* in ''[[Songs of Action]]'' (1898-1916, [[Smith, Elder & Co.]] [UK])
* in ''[[Songs of Action]]'' (august 1898, [[Charles Scribner's Sons]] [US])
* in ''[[Songs of Action]]'' (september 1898, [[Doubleday & McClure Co.|Doubleday, Page & Co.]] [US])
* ''A Lay of the Links'' (may 1900, [[Chappell & Co.]] [UK])
* in ''[[Songs of Action]]'' (1918-1920, [[John Murray]] [UK])
* in ''[[The Bristol Herald Courier]]'' (28 june 1921 [US])
* in ''[[The Sacramento Bee]]'' (29 june 1921 [US])
* in ''[[The Poems of Arthur Conan Doyle]]'' (1922-1928, [[John Murray]] [UK])
* in ''[[Daily Mail]]'' (5 june 1926 [UK]) 8 first verses only as ''Golfing Song''


== A Lay of the Links ==
[[File:daily-mail-1926-06-05-p4-golfing-song.jpg|thumb|250px|right|As ''Golfing Song'' in the [[Daily Mail]] (5 june 1926).]]

It's up and away from our work to-day,<br />
For the breeze sweeps over the down;<br />
And it's hey for a game where the gorse blossoms flame,<br />
And the bracken is bronzing to brown.<br />
With the turf 'neath our tread and the blue overhead,<br />
And the song of the lark in the whin;<br />
There's the flag and the green, with the bunkers between—<br />
Now will you be over or in?<br /><br />

The doctor may come, and we'll teach him to know<br />
A tee where no tannin can lurk;<br />
The soldier may come, and we'll promise to show<br />
Some hazards a soldier may shirk;<br />
The statesman may joke, as he tops every stroke,<br />
That at last he is high in his aims;<br />
And the clubman will stand with a club in his hand<br />
That is worth every club in St. James'.<br /><br />

The palm and the leather come rarely together,<br />
Gripping the driver's haft,<br />
And it's good to feel the jar of the steel<br />
And the spring of the hickory shaft.<br />
Why trouble or seek for the praise of a clique?<br />
A cleek here is common to all;<br />
And the lie that might sting is a very small thing<br />
When compared with the lie of the ball.<br /><br />

Come youth and come age, from the study or stage,<br />
From Bar or from Bench—high and low!<br />
A green you must use as a cure for the blues—<br />
You drive them away as you go.<br />
We're outward bound on a long, long round,<br />
And it's time to be up and away:<br />
If worry and sorrow come back with the morrow,<br />
At least we'll be happy to-day.


== Music Sheets ==

<gallery mode="packed" heights="400px" caption="Music sheets by [[Cecil Stanley]] in [[To-Day]] (14 april 1894)">
File:to-day-1894-04-14-p316-a-lay-of-the-links.jpg|p. 316
File:to-day-1894-04-14-p317-a-lay-of-the-links.jpg|p. 317
</gallery>






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* [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:Complete Works|Back to Complete Works]]
* [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle|Back to Conan Doyle]]