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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE NEUTRAL, by GEORGE SYLVESTER VIERECK Poet's Biography
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
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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A BALLAD OF ST. VITUS by GEORGE SYLVESTER VIERECK