Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE RANKER, by NATHALIA CRANE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE RANKER, by                    
First Line: There was only one first sergeant
Last Line: Who ever went to france.
Subject(s): Soldiers; World War I; First World War


There was only one first sergeant
Who ever went to France,
To walk that wintry terrace --
The Zone of the Advance.

He wore no leather leggins,
No Sam Brown belt in Gaul;
He only wore a ribbon
That ranked the China Wall.

We backed him with an ensign
Above the vestibule;
It flapped against a window
Three thousand miles from Toul.

We conned the lists each evening,
The casualties that came;
We blessed the New York papers --
They would not run his name.

And when the ranks were easeled,
The sergeant came once more;
He brought me all the belt plates
The foeman ever wore;

He brought me all the buttons
From off the German gray;
The Rhine still weeps for helmets
That mother gave away.

Now when they rise for heroes
A tigress taps her heel;
A cobra in an eyeball
Begins to sway with zeal.

Perchance there was a marshal
Somewhere along the lines;
They may have used a major
To make the countersigns.

We don't deny a colonel,
A captain or a lance --
But only one first sergeant
Who ever went to France.





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