Play The Game Poem by Jessie Pope

Play The Game

Rating: 3.1


Twenty-Two stalwarts in stripes and shorts
Kicking a ball along,
Set in a square of leather-lunged sports
Twenty-two thousand strong,
Some of them shabby, some of them spruce,
Savagely clamorous all,
Hurling endearments, advice or abuse,
At the muscular boys on the ball.

Stark and stiff 'neath a stranger's sky
A few hundred miles away,
War-worn, khaki-clad figures lie,
Their faces rigid and grey
Stagger and drop where the bullets swarm,
Where the shrapnel is bursting loud,
Die, to keep England safe and warm
For a vigorous football crowd !

Football's a sport, and a rare sport too,
Don't make it a source of shame.
To-day there are worthier things to do.
Englishmen, play the game!
A truce to the League, a truce to the Cup,
Get to work with a gun,
When our country's at war we must all back up
It's the only thing to be done!

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Rajnish Manga 01 December 2015

An awesome tribute to the game of football, The English people and the soldiers who are always on their toes- ready to sacrifice their lives to ensure safety and security of their country. Thanks.

1 2 Reply
Edward Kofi Louis 01 December 2015

Nice work with the muse of a game. Thanks for sharing this poem with us.

1 2 Reply
M Asim Nehal 01 December 2015

Famous game made immortal with this writing...

0 2 Reply
Kim Barney 01 December 2015

When she says PLAY THE GAME, she's really saying COME JOIN THE ARMY! It's a call to war, not to a game of football.

2 0 Reply
Sarah Shahzad 11 January 2020

wow this one is awesome..! you wrote really amazingly... thanks for sharing :) pleez do comment/ review/ write your thoughts on my website & poems 2 thank you :)

0 0 Reply
cory. W 06 February 2018

she used propaganda to make war seem like a game witch is a very sick thing to do

4 1 Reply
cory. W 06 February 2018

war really is not something to call a game and make it sound fun: (

0 0
ted hughes 06 December 2017

amazing i felt a tear go down my face

1 7 Reply
Curtis Johnson 01 December 2015

In peace or war, such words never more worthy to be said and heard.

1 4 Reply
Susan Williams 01 December 2015

Football and war the topics of one poem. Let me ponder the vagaries of man that they appear in the same poem together

22 2 Reply
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Jessie Pope

Jessie Pope

Leicestershire, England
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