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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE NEUTRAL by GEORGE SYLVESTER VIERECK

First Line: THOU WHO CANST STOP THIS SLAUGHTER IF THOU WILT
Last Line: THE MUTE ACCUSING ARMY OF THE DEAD?
Subject(s): GERMAN AMERICANS; WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;

THOU who canst stop this slaughter if thou wilt,
Lo, how with death we freight the unwilling sea!
Lift up thy voice to end this infamy:
Hands may be blood-stained that no blood have spilt.
Into a people's heart, yea to the hilt,
Is plunged the sword of thy Neutrality.
Though each wave bring some golden argosy,
Each on our souls heaps a new load of guilt.
Curses for us commingle with the tears
Of anguished mothers. Man, hast thou no ears?
Upon these harbors falls a streak of red
From Europe's carnage. In the long night-tide
Canst thou not see them marching side by side,
The mute accusing army of the dead?



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