THE PROPHETIC PRESENT.
"There is no Hindenburg line."
Inspired German Press.
By nature they abhor the light,
But here in this their latest tract
Your parrot Press by oversight
Has deviated into fact;
If not (at present) strictly true,
It shows a sound anticipation
Born of the fear that's father to
The allegation.
For, though the boasted "line" of which
No trace occurs on German maps
Retains the semblance of a ditch,
It has some nasty yawning gaps;
It bulges here, it wobbles there,
It crumples up with broken hinges,
Keeping no sort of pattern where
Our Push impinges.
When the triumphant word went round
How that your god, disguised as man,
At victory's height was giving ground
According to a well-laid plan,
Here he arranged to draw the line
(As Siegfried's you were told to hymn it)
And plant Nil ultra for a sign—
Meaning the limit.
And now "There's no such thing," they say;
Well, that implies prophetic sense;
And, if a British prophet may
Adopt their graphic present tense,
I would remark—and so forestall
A truth they'll never dare to trench on:—
There is no Hindenburg at all,
Or none worth mention.
O.S.