Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ST. MIHIEL, by WILLIAM A. PHELON First Line: They said the yankees wouldn't fight--that there was no living chance Last Line: That the yankees did come overthat the yanks are really there! Subject(s): Germany; United States; War; World War I; Germans; America; First World War | ||||||||
THEY said the Yankees wouldn't rightthat there was no living chance That we would ever send our men to guard the soil of France If any should start over there, that the deadly submarine Would hurriedly remove our boys from all love of mortal scenes Then, when the early battle news was flashed across the wire, They said "Some Yankee units have been smitten by our fire" "All talk of Yankee thousands come from some worthless source These are mere sporadic actions by a trifling, useless force." When we turned the tide of fighting and the German lines bent back, They said that "Some few regiments help in the French attack" But the taking of St. Mihiel was no "feeble, flickering flare" Then suddenly they realized that the Yanks were really there! They will realize yet more things as they yield their broken line They will cry to German heavens when our columns cross the Rhine It will come straight home among them, like a new and painful light, That the Yanks have come in millionsand the Yankees love to fight! When the forts are smashed to powder by the pounding of our guns, And all the roads along the Rhine are choked with dying Huns When the Lusitania's sinking is avenged ten thousand fold, And the kaiser screams for mercy ere the cannon's lips grow cold When the years of shame and horror shall recoil upon their land, And the German nation shall be seared as with a white-hot brand Then will they fully realize, from the depths of red despair, That the Yankees DID come overthat the Yanks are really there! | 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 FOOL THERE WAS by WILLIAM A. PHELON |
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