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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE LOST LEGION, by WILLIAM A. PHELON
First Line: Tough birds were some of our fighters, for the
Last Line: But god won't give a crooked deal to men who died like men!
Subject(s): Death; Soldiers; World War I; Dead, The; First World War
First Line: Tough birds were some of our fighters, for the
Last Line: But god won't give a crooked deal to men who died like men!
Subject(s): Death; Soldiers; World War I; Dead, The; First World War
TOUGH birds were some of our fighters, for the dragnet of the draft
Threw its meshes over the country, raked the cities fore and aft—
And when they were tossed together, thrown in the training camp,
The rank and file of the Army held men of a curious stamp.
They were hard to drill and master, and the guardhouse often knew
The vicious snarls of a caged-up crowd, the worst of the dubious crew.
But when they came to the fighting front, in the thick of the raging throng,
How they fought and strove for the righteous cause—these men who had lived
by wrong!
Gunmen of the East Side, bad men of the Plains,
Crook and common gambler, marked with various stains—
Marred with blackest records, wolves of the devil's den,
They may have lived like rascals BUT—THEY DIED LIKE MEN!
Thugs from the dimlit alleys yelled as they mounted the top,
"Think of these guys as harness bulls—smash like you'd wallop a cop!"
Bandits who rode on the border settled an overdue debt
To their own dark lives and their country, with a stab of the bayonet!
They laughed as the shells were bursting, they surged to the trenches' crown,
And they fought in the murk like demons till the last armed foe was down!
Burglar, "cadet," and strong-arm, went where their officers led,
And never a crook gave backward, never a criminal fled!
Gunmen of the East Side, bad men of the plains—
How the blood of battle washes out the stains!
Crook and common gambler, wolves of the devil's den—
BUT GOD WON'T GIVE A CROOKED DEAL TO MEN WHO DIED LIKE MEN!
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