Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ST. MIHIEL, by WILLIAM A. PHELON



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ST. MIHIEL, by                    
First Line: They said the yankees wouldn't fight--that there was no living chance
Last Line: That the yankees did come over—that 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 right—that 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 millions—and 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 over—that the Yanks are really there!





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