A Small Boy's Desire
Alan L Strang 1908
Written for the first thrift stamp drive.
I want to be a soldier
And march away to France;
I want to find a wicked "Hun,"
And shoot him in the pants.
I want to be a soldier,
And wear a khaki suit;
I want to have a sword and gun
And all the "Boches" shoot.
I want to be a soldier,
And have an aeroplane
To drop bombs on the German towns,
And fly back home again.
I want to be a soldier
And do my little bit;
My country needs brave fighting men,
While here at home I sit.
Some day I'll be a big, big man;
I'll go to war and fight
The wicked Hun, or any one
Who does not do what's right.
But now the only way for me
To help my country win,
Is save my coin and buy thrift stamps,
So, boys, let's save our tin.
Font size:
Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 48 sec read
- 5 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | x Axbx Acbc Abxd Aede xfbf xgxg |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 702 |
Words | 160 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Translation
Find a translation for this poem in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"A Small Boy's Desire" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/54638/a-small-boy's-desire>.
Discuss the poem A Small Boy's Desire with the community...
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In