Your Country Needs You

By Edgar Albert Guest

The country needs a man like you,

It has a task for you to do.

It has a job for you to face.

Somewhere for you it has a place.

Not all the slackers dodge the work

Of service where the cannon lurk,

Not all the slackers on life's stage

Are boys of military age.

The old, the youthful and unfit

Must also do their little bit.

The country needs a man like you,

‘ Twill suffer if you prove untrue.

What though you cannot bear a gun?

That is n't all that's to be done.

There are a thousand other ways

To serve your country through the days

Of trial and the nights of storm.

You need not wear a uniform

Or with the men in council sit

To serve the Flag and do your bit.

Somewhere for you there is a place,

Somewhere you have a task to face.

There's none so helpless or so frail

That cannot, when our foes assail,

In some way help our common cause

And be deserving of applause.

Behind the Flag we all must be,

Each at his post, awake to see

That in so far as he has striven,

His best was to his country given.

You can be patient, brave and strong,

And not complain when plans go wrong;

You can be cheerful at your toil,

Or till, perhaps, some patch of soil;

You can encourage others who

Have heavier, greater tasks to do;

You can be loyal, not in creed

Alone, but in each thought and deed;

You can make sacrifices, too.

The country needs a man like you,