Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BIG GAME--HERE AND OVER THERE, by WILLIAM A. PHELON


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BIG GAME--HERE AND OVER THERE, by                    
First Line: Stands are packed and bleachers crowded
Last Line: "shall call ""safe"" ere evening falls!"
Variant Title(s): The Big Game-here And Over There
Subject(s): Baseball; Soldiers; Sports; War; World War I; First World War


STANDS are packed and bleachers crowded,
When the gong-clang summons "Play,"
Bands are brazen, throngs are vocal,
Once again, for "opening day."
Cheers for well-remembered faces—
Hats off—silence—for we know
Some of those who were our idols,
Star no longer with the show!
Some of those who decked the diamond,
With the start of yesteryear,
Can not hear the umpire calling,
Can not answer—over here!
Still, we know their hearts are with us,
As they battle, do, and dare—
They are thinking of the ballfield—
And our thoughts are over there!

Standing up to face fast pitching.
Matching eye and strength and nerve
With the cunning of the master.
With the whizzing, darting curve—
Striding up, determined, eager,
While the roaring thousands cheer,
That's the Game that we are starting—
That's the Big Game—over here!

Stepping onward through the smoke-whirls.
Splashing forward in the mire,
Over heaps of fallen bodies,
Over trench and tangling wire—
"Carry on" through gas and gun-blaze,
Trampling down each hidden lair—
That's the game our boys have started—
That's the Big Game—over there!

There's a home-plate in the ball park,
Where the armored maskman waits—
There's a home plate over yonder,
Where the foemen guard the gates—
Hard the patch around the base lines.
Yet the plaudits of the stand.
Soon or late acclaim a triumph.
With the umpire's upraised hand—
Black and red the longer base-path.
Strong the steel-shod battle-line,
That awaits our charging fighters,
From the Somme far past the Rhine!
Yet we know that when our vanguard
Gains the Hohenzollern halls,
Then the Greatest of the Umpires
Shall call "Safe" ere evening falls!





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