AND this was Germany—this puff of dust, This worn gray shoddy, and this iron rust! This was the Germany where Goethe wrote, Where Mendelssohn gave forth his golden note, Where Schiller won our hearts with matchless word, Where Wagner's greatest triumphs first were heard! We loved you, when your poets nobly sang Of Liberty—we heard the sabers clang These seventy years gone by—and when you hushed The Voice of Liberty, and when you crushed Those who dreamed high in 1848, We welcomed them with open, wide-thrown gate. 'I fought mit Sigel'—and no braver word Through all our ringing history has been heard! Franz Sigel, soul of German freedom, you, Outlawed at home, received with us your due! We loved you, Germany—and when you turned Upon us like a tiger, and you spurned A century's devotion—dazed, aghast, We took the blow, and then we grimly massed Our bannered legions to the direful task Of tearing off the Hohenzollern mask. And this was Germany! Our warriors pressed Onward and forward till the battle test Showed that the Eagle of the Western wave Conquers at will the abject, beaten slave! And this was Germany! Our troopers tread In serried ranks above thy vanquished head— The horror of thy work recoils at last On thine own land, as when a tempest blast, Turned in mid course, sweeps murderously back, Leaving a hideous welter in its track! And this was Germany—this puff of dust, This worn gray shoddy, and this iron rust! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FOREIGN CHILDREN by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON A DREAM OF FAIR WOMEN by ALFRED TENNYSON HYMN ON SOLITUDE by JAMES THOMSON (1700-1748) THE OPTIMIST AND THE PESSIMIST; A DIALOGUE by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) THE LOVER'S VIGIL by WILLIAM ROSE BENET MY MOTHER by BEULAH VICK BICKLEY |