<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">John Doe--Buck Private</h1><p class="byline"> ALLAN P. THOMSON <br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/><span class="smallcaps">IN The Stars And Stripes, A.E.F., France</span></p><div class="stanza"><p class="line">WHO was it, picked from civil life</p><p class="line">And plunged in deadly, frenzied strife </p><p class="line">Against a devil's dreadful might?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Just plain "John Doe-Buck Private."</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Who jumped the counter for the trench, </p><p class="line">And left fair shores for all the stench</p><p class="line">And mud, and death, and bloody drench?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Your simple, plain "Buck Private."</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Who, when his nerves were on the hop, </p><p class="line">With courage scaled the bloody top? </p><p class="line">Who was it made the Fritzies stop?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">"J. Doe (no stripes), Buck Private."</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Who, underneath his training tan </p><p class="line">Is, every single inch, a man! </p><p class="line">And, best of all, American?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">"John Doe, just plain Buck Private."</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Who saw his job and did it well? </p><p class="line">Who smiles so bland--yet fights like hell? </p><p class="line">Who rang again old Freedom's bell?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">'Twas only "Doe--Buck Private."</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Who was it lunged, and struck, and tore </p><p class="line">His bayonet deep in flesh and gore? </p><p class="line">Who was it helped to win the war?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">"John Doe (no brains), Buck Private."</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Who, heeding not the laurel pile </p><p class="line">That scheming other men beguile, </p><p class="line">Stands modestly aside the while?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">"John Doe (God's kind), Buck Private." </p></div></body></html> · Great War