Will you see one half the Nation raped and burning—
Will you learn War’s callous, lurid, livid wrath
By the wailing ’long the wayside, by the ashes of the cities,
Ere your gathered army flings across their path?
You may strut and boast our boundless might and power—
You may call our race the Chosen of the Lord—
But if your town they raze—and if your home’s ablaze
You will wake and learn the Kingdom of the Sword.
You will wake and learn the word your Fathers taught you—
You will wake and learn the truth—but all too late:
By the shrieking shrapnel’s crying—by the homeless, wronged and dying—
You shall count what, you begrudged to Guard the Gate.
THE AMERICAN FLAG
It should be needless to note that the persons here addressed do not comprise the whole American people but a certain distinctive type.
Oh little men and sheltered—
Oh fatted pigs of a sty,
Through the Star Spangled Banner ye calmly sit,
Nor see the wrong, nor the why,
And ye stand with your hats on your thoughtless heads,
When the Flag of the Nation goes by.
Has the lust of the dollar gripped you
Till the fetid brain’s grown cold,
Till ye forget the days that are set
And the glorious deeds of old—
And the Song and the Passing Colors
Are drowned in a flood of gold?
Awake from your listless lethargy—
Arise and understand
The battle-hymn of your fathers—
And the Flag of your Fatherland—
As it rose to the hum of the feet that come
To the drum and the bugle’s call;
As it tasted the dregs of raw reverse—
As it rushed through the breach in the wall: