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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CARNAGE: 5. KULTUR by PERCY MACKAYE

First Line: IF MEN MUST MURDER, PILLAGE, SACK, DESPOIL
Last Line: TO ANSWER HIM: ONCE RHEIMS WAS — AND LOUVAIN!
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: @3Once Rheims was — and Louvain!@1



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