Hoch Der Kaiser
BY GEORGE DAVIES
HOCH DER KAISER! Amen! Amen!
We of the pulpit and bar,
We of the engine and car;
Hail to the Caesar who's given us men,
Our rightful heritage back again.
Who kicks the dancing shoes from our feet;
Snatches our mouths from the hot forced meat;
Drags us away from our warm padded stalls;
From our ivory keys, our song books and balls;
Orders man's hands from the children's go-carts;
Closes our fool schools of "ethics" and "arts."
Puts our ten fingers on triggers and swords,
Marshals us into War's legions by hordes.
Hoch der Kaiser! Amen! Amen!
We of the sea and the land;
We of the clerking band;
Hail to the Caesar who's given us men
Our rightful heritage back again.
WHO SUMMONS:
These women who write of loves that are loose,
(Those little perversionist scribes of the Deuce!)
Laughter of lies lilting lewd at their lips,
Their souls and brains both in a maudlin eclipse;
Their bosoms as bare as their stories and songs;
These coaxers of dogs with their "rights" and their wrongs.
WHO COMMANDS:
Strike from their shoulders the transparent mesh;
Mark the Red Cross on the cloth for their flesh.
WHO ORDAINS:
Ye, men who seem women in work and at play;
Ye, who do blindly as women may say;
Ye, who kill life in the smug cabarets;
Ye, all, at the beck of the little tea-tray;
Ye, all, of the measure of daughters of clay.
Waken to face me: be women no more;
But fellow-men born, from top branch to the core;
Men who must fight—who can kill, who can die,
While women once more shall be covered and shy.
Hoch der Kaiser! Amen! Amen!
We of the hills and the homes;
We of the plows and the tomes;
Hail to the Caesar who's given us men
Our rightful heritage back again.