Field Marshal, few, and foolish, are the lands
That do not hail the baton in your hands.
They labelled you a 'showman'. But we know
Good showmen must have something good to show:
One does not capture by the showman's art
The people's confidence, the soldier's heart.
They said you were 'eccentric'. We could do
With several abnormalities like you:
It needs a not quite ordinary man
To start at Alamein and take Sedan.
Master of craft, and horror of the Huns,
One hundred salvos from a thousand guns!
September 3, 1944