Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE FOOTBALL CASABIANCA, by WILBUR DICK NESBIT


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE FOOTBALL CASABIANCA, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The boy stood on the football field
Last Line: "they get some gasoline!"
Subject(s): College Sports; Fields; Football; Pastures; Meadows; Leas


THE boy stood on the football field
Whence all but him had fled.
The rooter's shoutings echoed o'er
The dying and the dead.

His hair hung down into his eyes —
Such of it as was left —
For, sad to state, at one fell swoop
Of it he'd been bereft.

One arm hung limply at his side
And fluttered as he reeled;
His teeth, like snowflakes in the wind,
Were scattered o'er the field.

His shirt was torn across the chest,
His pants ripped at the knees,
His shoes clung sadly to his feet,
Like mistletoe to trees.

Yet beautiful and bright he stood,
While all around, alack!
Were fragments of the centre rush,
The half and quarter back.

The tackles on the goal posts hung,
The guards were borne away
In ambulances which were called
Quite early in the fray.

And here and there lay shoulderblades,
And ears on every side,
With fingers, feet, and locks of hair —
All unidentified.

But still he stood amid this wreck.
O, that this tongue could tell
How bravely he essayed to speak
And give his college yell!

His father called him from the box;
His mother, from the stand;
Yet ever nobly stood he there,
A football in his hand.

The other side was lining up,
With husky boast and scream.
"Come on!" he mumbled, toothlessly,
"I'll buck the entire team!"

They formed a flying wedge, and hurled
The gallant lad on high,
And when they downed him, shoes and legs
Were waving in the sky.

There came a burst of thunder sound.
The boy — O, where was he?
Ask of the other team, that left
With college chant and glee.

Ask of the other team, and learn:
"He has not yet been seen.
They don't expect to find him, till
They get some gasoline!"





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