Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE RIVAL SCHOOLS by WILLIAM A. PHELON

First Line: TRAINED IN THE WAYS OF BLOOD AND IRON
Last Line: "URGED ON BY ""HIGH-BORN"" POWER?"
Subject(s): SOLDIERS; WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;

TRAINED in the ways of blood and iron,
Trained to a mail-glove rule,
The field-gray legions face the lads
Taught in a different school!
Trained through the years to think a "Von"
Ranks as a mighty god,
Trained to bow low and crouch before
A noble's spurring prod.
Welded in one obedient mass,
Autocracy's dumb slaves,
The gray-clad lines rush madly on,
In endless, hurtling waves!
But those who calmly meet the charge,
And mow the myriads down,
Were never taught to bow the knee
For noble, "Von" or crown!
Trained in the school of equal right,
Who hopes to make them cower
Before a sturing mass of slaves
Urged on by "high-born" power?



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