Twenty-Two stalwarts in stripes and shorts <br />Kicking a ball along, <br />Set in a square of leather-lunged sports <br />Twenty-two thousand strong, <br />Some of them shabby, some of them spruce, <br />Savagely clamorous all, <br />Hurling endearments, advice or abuse, <br />At the muscular boys on the ball. <br /> <br />Stark and stiff 'neath a stranger's sky <br />A few hundred miles away, <br />War-worn, khaki-clad figures lie, <br />Their faces rigid and grey <br />Stagger and drop where the bullets swarm, <br />Where the shrapnel is bursting loud, <br />Die, to keep England safe and warm <br />For a vigorous football crowd ! <br /> <br />Football's a sport, and a rare sport too, <br />Don't make it a source of shame. <br />To-day there are worthier things to do. <br />Englishmen, play the game! <br />A truce to the League, a truce to the Cup, <br />Get to work with a gun, <br />When our country's at war we must all back up <br />It's the only thing to be done!<br /><br />Jessie Pope<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/play-the-game-2/
