<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Cricketers of Flanders</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">The</span> first to climb the parapet</p><p class="line">With cricket balls" in either hand;</p><p class="line">The first to vanish in the smoke</p><p class="line">Of God-forsaken No Man's Land;</p><p class="line">First at the wire and soonest through,</p><p class="line">First at those red-mouthed hounds of hell,</p><p class="line">The Maxims, and the first to fall, --</p><p class="line">They do their bit and do it well.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Full sixty yards I've seen them throw</p><p class="line">With all that nicety of aim</p><p class="line">They learned on British cricket-fields.</p><p class="line">Ah, bombing is a Briton's game!</p><p class="line">Shell-hole to shell-hole, trench to trench,</p><p class="line">"Lobbing them over" with an eye</p><p class="line">As true as though it <em>were</em> a game</p><p class="line">And friends were having tea close by.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Pull down some art-offending thing</p><p class="line">Of carven stone, and in its stead</p><p class="line">Let splendid bronze commemorate</p><p class="line">These men, the living and the dead.</p><p class="line">No figure of heroic size,</p><p class="line">Towering skyward like a god;</p><p class="line">But just a lad who might have stepped</p><p class="line">From any British bombing squad.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">His shrapnel helmet set atilt,</p><p class="line">His bombing waistcoat sagging low,</p><p class="line">His rifle slung across his back:</p><p class="line">Poised in the very act to throw.</p><p class="line">And let some graven legend tell</p><p class="line">Of those weird battles in the West</p><p class="line">Wherein he put old skill to use,</p><p class="line">And played old games with sterner zest.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Thus should he stand, reminding those</p><p class="line">In less-believing days, perchance,</p><p class="line">How Britain's fighting cricketers</p><p class="line">Helped bomb the Germans out of France.</p><p class="line">And other eyes than ours would see;</p><p class="line">And other hearts than ours would thrill;</p><p class="line">And others say, as we have said:</p><p class="line">"A sportsman and a soldier still!"</p></div><p class="byline">James Norman Hall</p></body></html> · Great War