Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE MILITIAMAN, by ELMO SCOTT WATSON


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE MILITIAMAN, by                    
First Line: O, we didn't join for glory
Last Line: Fightin' like hell for the red, white and blue!
Subject(s): Militarism; Soldiers; World War I; First World War


O, WE didn't join for glory,
And we didn't join for fame:
There's but little chance for either
For us guys that bear the name:
State "milish" or National Guardsman—
Both of them you call the same:
"Pale, pink imitations o' the Reg'lar Army."

"Column left, you damn fool rookies!"—listen to the captain shriek!
Do you expect to make good soldiers with a drill just once a week?

O, our captain is a lawyer,
The lieutenants, clerks in banks,
And both city dudes and farm hands
Make up all our slender ranks;
Really, some of us are decent,
And we're not all bums and tanks—
We, these "little brothers o' the reg'lar Army."

While engaged in active service, private's rate: two bones per day.
Ain't it true that any soldier is no better than his pay?

O, of course, we like sham battles,
And the long, hot summer hikes;
We are glad to pass by in review
When His Nibs, the Gov'nor likes;
We're considered rather useful
When they want to settle strikes:
For that's no business for our noble Reg'lar Army.

O, we'll leave it to the Reg'lars for the flag to fight!
Be for us the joy of bleedin' for the grand C. F. and I.

His battlefield's a minin' town,
The militiaman there seeks
To gain his fame by shootin' up
A bunch of striker Slavs and Greeks;
But he soon forgets the glory
When that damned machine gun speaks
And he hikes for cover—quite unlike the Reg-lar Army!

The miners blow the Reveille; it's for us to sound the Taps;
But why in hell can't old Jawn D. fight out his own damn scraps?

But now that this preparedness howl
Takes on a deeper tone,
And the military weakness
Of your Uncle Samuel's shown;
Mebbe now us poor militiamen
Will come into our own,
And we'll grow up man-size with the Reg-lar Army.

Hike, ye dough-boys. Hit 'er along!
Hay-foot! Straw-foot! Whoop up a song!
Regular Army and Militiamen, too,
Fightin' like hell for the Red, White and Blue!





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net