Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE IRON CHANCELLOR, by GEORGE SYLVESTER VIERECK


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE IRON CHANCELLOR, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Above the grave where bismarck sleeps
Last Line: Two eagles screamed of victory.
Subject(s): Bismark, Otto Von (1815-1898); Germany; Prussia; Germans


ABOVE the grave where Bismarck sleeps
The ravens screeched with strange alarms,
The Saxon forest in its deeps
Shook with the distant clash of arms.
The Iron Chancellor stirred. "'Tis war!
Give me my sword to lay them low
Who touch my work. Unbar the door
I passed an hundred years ago."
The angel guardian of the tomb
Spake of the law that binds all clay,
That neither rose nor oak may bloom
Betwixt the night and judgment day.
"For no man twice may pass this gate,"
He said. But Bismarck flashed his eyes:
"Nay, at the trumpet call of fate,
Like Barbarossa, I shall rise.
"In sight of all God's Seraphim
I'll place this helmet on my brow.
For lo! We Germans fear but Him,
And He, I know, is with us now."
The dead man stood up in his might,
The startled angel said no word.
Through endless spheres of day and night
God in His Seventh Heaven heard.
And answered thus: "Shall man forget
My laws? They were not lightly made,
Nor writ for thee to break. And yet
I love thee. Thou art not afraid.
"Bismarck, from now till morrow's sun
Walk as a wraith amid the strife,
And if thou find thy work undone
Come back, and I shall give thee -- life."
With stern salute the spectre strode
Out of the dark into the dawn.
From Hamburg to the Caspian road
He saw a wall of iron drawn.
He saw young men go forth to die
Singing the martial songs of yore.
Boldly athwart the Flemish sky
He marked the German airmen soar.
A thousand spears in battle line
Had pierced the wayward heart of France,
But still above the German Rhine
The Walkyrs held their sacred dance.
He saw the sidling submarine
Wrest the green trident from the hold
Of her whose craven tradesmen lean
On yellow men and yellow gold.
In labyrinths of blood and sand
He watched ten Russian legions drown.
Unseen he shook the doughty hand
Of Hindenburg near Warsaw town.
The living felt his presence when,
Paternal blessing, he drew nigh,
And all the dead and dying men
Saluted him as he passed by.
But he rode back in silent thought,
And from his great heart burst a sigh
Of thanks. "The Master Craftsman wrought
This mighty edifice, not I.
"No hostile hoof shall ever fall
Upon my country's sacred sod;
Though seven whirlwinds lash its wall,
It stands erect, a rock of God.
"I shall return unto my bed,
Nor ask of life a second lease,
My spirit lives, though I be dead,
My aching bones may rest in peace."
Up to his chin he drew the shroud,
To wait God's judgment patiently,
While high above a blood-red cloud
Two eagles screamed of victory.





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