Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CARNAGE: 5. KULTUR, by PERCY MACKAYE Poet's Biography First Line: If men must murder, pillage, sack, despoil Last Line: To answer him: once rheims was and louvain! Alternate Author Name(s): Mackaye, Percy Wallace Subject(s): Culture Conflict; Louvain, Belgium; Rheims, France; World War I; First World War | ||||||||
IF men must murder, pillage, sack, despoil, Let it not be (lest angels laugh) in the name Of sacred Culture. Vulcan still goes lame Though servile Muses poultice him with oil Of sleek Hypocrisy. They waste their toil Whose boast of light and sweetness takes its claim From deeds of night and wormwood, which defame Fair Culture's shrine and make her gods recoil. No; let the imperial Visigoth put off His borrowed toga, boast aloud his slain In naked savagery, and make his scoff Of Attic graces. So when once again He asks for Culture's crown, 'twill be enough To answer him: Once Rheims was and Louvain! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...D'ANNUNZIO by ERNEST HEMINGWAY 1915: THE TRENCHES by CONRAD AIKEN TO OUR PRESIDENT by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE HORSES by KATHARINE LEE BATES CHILDREN OF THE WAR by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE U-BOAT CREWS by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE RED CROSS NURSE by KATHARINE LEE BATES WAR PROFITS by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE UNCHANGEABLE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN A CHILD AT THE WICKET by PERCY MACKAYE |
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