Edward Thomas, 'This is No Case of Petty Right or Wrong'

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This is No Case of Petty Right or Wrong

This is no case of petty right or wrong
That politicians or philosophers
Can judge. I hate not Germans, nor grow hot
With love of Englishmen, to please newspapers.
Beside my hate for one fat patriot
My hatred of the Kaiser is love true:--
A kind of god he is, banging a gong.
But I have not to choose between the two,
Or between justice and injustice. Dinned
With war and argument I read no more
Than in the storm smoking along the wind
Athwart the wood. Two witches' cauldrons roar.
From one the weather shall rise clear and gay;
Out of the other an England beautiful
And like her mother that died yesterday.
Little I know or care if, being dull,
I shall miss something that historians
Can rake out of the ashes when perchance
The phoenix broods serene above their ken.
But with the best and meanest Englishmen
I am one in crying, God save England, lest
We lose what never slaves and cattle blessed.
The ages made her that made us from dust:
She is all we know and live by, and we trust
She is good and must endure, loving her so:
And as we love ourselves we hate her foe.

by Edward Thomas (1878-1917)

Richard Dehmel, 'Song for All, 1914'

[duathir.livejournal.com]

Song for All, 1914

Hour of steel, thou art a blessing
That at last unites us all.
Friend and foe, still peace caressing,
Trembled in suspicion’s thrall.
Now comes the fight,
The honest fight!

Greed with blunted claw has meanly
Bartered for its pomp and lust;
Now we all are feeling keenly
What can save our souls from dust:
The hour of need,
Of blessed need!

Truth will blaze, through darkness smiting,
Over dust and powder’s smoke.
Not for life we men are fighting—
Fighting till the fatal stroke:
For then comes death,
Divinest death!

Led by faith, thy land defending,
People, for thy spirit fight,
Heroes’ blood for honour spending!
Sacrifice be our delight—
Then victory,
Hail victory!

By Richard Dehmel