Harry WilmansI was just turned twenty-one,And Henry Phipps, the Sunday-school superintendent,Made a speech in Bindle’s Opera House.“The honor of the flag must be upheld,” he said,“Whether it be assailed by a barbarous tribe of TagalogsOr the greatest power in Europe.”And we cheered and cheered the speech and the flag he wavedAs he spoke.And I went to the war in spite of my father,And followed the flag till I saw it raisedBy our camp in a rice field near Manila,And all of us cheered and cheered it.But there were flies and poisonous things;And there was the deadly water,And the cruel heat,And the sickening, putrid food;And the smell of the trench just back of the tentsWhere the soldiers went to empty themselves;And there were the whores who followed us, full of syphilis;And beastly acts between ourselves or alone,With bullying, hatred, degradation among us,And days of loathing and nights of fearTo the hour of the charge through the steaming swamp,Following the flag,Till I fell with a scream, shot through the guts.Now there’s a flag over me inSpoon River. A flag!A flag!
I was just turned twenty-one,And Henry Phipps, the Sunday-school superintendent,Made a speech in Bindle’s Opera House.“The honor of the flag must be upheld,” he said,“Whether it be assailed by a barbarous tribe of TagalogsOr the greatest power in Europe.”And we cheered and cheered the speech and the flag he wavedAs he spoke.And I went to the war in spite of my father,And followed the flag till I saw it raisedBy our camp in a rice field near Manila,And all of us cheered and cheered it.But there were flies and poisonous things;And there was the deadly water,And the cruel heat,And the sickening, putrid food;And the smell of the trench just back of the tentsWhere the soldiers went to empty themselves;And there were the whores who followed us, full of syphilis;And beastly acts between ourselves or alone,With bullying, hatred, degradation among us,And days of loathing and nights of fearTo the hour of the charge through the steaming swamp,Following the flag,Till I fell with a scream, shot through the guts.Now there’s a flag over me inSpoon River. A flag!A flag!