The ballad of Manila Bay and other verses . A. A. STAGG THE BALLAD OF THE PIGSKIN To A. A. Stagg When the crowd has cheered the hostile teams andthe band has played its best, And roaring rooters warmed the lungs within thecoldest breast ; When hat and cane and flag and feet have markedeach rolling shout, And the coin has told its little tale and the whistlesounded out— Then the untried slippery pigskin lies at rest upon theground, And silence wraps the people with expectancy pro-found. O the kick off and the tackle and the sudden-footedpunt,And the stillness of the players on a down ;And the p
The ballad of Manila Bay and other verses . A. A. STAGG THE BALLAD OF THE PIGSKIN To A. A. Stagg When the crowd has cheered the hostile teams andthe band has played its best, And roaring rooters warmed the lungs within thecoldest breast ; When hat and cane and flag and feet have markedeach rolling shout, And the coin has told its little tale and the whistlesounded out— Then the untried slippery pigskin lies at rest upon theground, And silence wraps the people with expectancy pro-found. O the kick off and the tackle and the sudden-footedpunt,And the stillness of the players on a down ;And the plunging and the lunging in the swayingbattles brunt,And the megaphonic cries of town and gown! 35. Now the ball comes floating downward toward thefull-backs opening arms, And he hugs it for a zigzag shoot through a host ofthreatened harms ; But the clutches of the tackle snap him hard uponthe earth, And the fumbled ball goes bobbing like a thing ofmock and mirth ; Till the center-rush bends motionless above the rest-ing sphere, And the fronting lines stand statuesque in hiddenhope and fear. Then the mighty mingled scrimmage works its arms and legs and heads and twisted bodies in a chaos most complete;But five yards is a journey for a head that isnt stone,.And harder than a wooden wall is a wall of human bone;So the bleachers lift their megaphones to breathe a bracing the rooters Hold em, Hold em, smites the players anxious ear. Then out from the mass of strugglers, like a comet from its a runner on a tangent, with a catapultic force; 37 And the field spreads fair before him as the path to Paradise,And his soul leaps up to win it at the dearest s
Size: 1233px × 2026px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherchicagouniversityo
