Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, KAISER AND COUNSELLOR, by STUART PRATT SHERMAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

KAISER AND COUNSELLOR, by                    
First Line: Through what dark pass to what place in the sun
Last Line: Still draws all hearts unto its wounded side.
Subject(s): World War I; First World War


(ON FIRST LOOKING INTO BERNHARDI'S Our Next War)

I

THROUGH what dark pass to what place in the sun
Dost thou, misguided Moses, lead this folk?
What rest remains when wayfaring is done?
What clearer skies beyond the cannon-smoke?
Say not he triumphs, though his trampling host,
That knows above his nation's lust no law,
From inland village to the fearful coast
Still treads the peaceful peoples red and raw.
Nay, pity him the banded friends abhor,
Who sees—the tragic fool and slave of state—
Behind him stretch the sterile wastes of war,
Before, a widening wilderness of hate,
While all the world lifts up one wrathful cry
To give this Prussian Machiavel the lie.

II

White mouths that clamor for the unreaped wheat,
Frail hands that clasp the unresponsive dead,
Brave Belgian hearts, unconquered in defeat,
Dispeopled, exiled King: be comforted.
Though we close not the assaulted gates of sense
To shrieking towns, the gurgle of great ships
In drowning agonies, the fields immense
Horrid with shuddering limbs and writhen lips,
Yet since your woe has wrought this lift and swell
Of worldwide pity, love, and chivalry,
We say the awful sacrifice is well.
The old law holds; on this new Calvary
Humanity, uplifted, crucified,
Still draws all hearts unto its wounded side.





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