Petition to the Deil :: :: University of Virginia Library

Not yours, that broke the nations' peace,
Not yours to say that war shall cease,
Till other claims than just your pride
And cruel greed are satisfied.
Justice will say; and Truth and Right
Have stronger claims than Fraud and Might.

II

Peace! not till Justice with her sword,
In vengeance, for that crime abhorr'd
To Belgium done, has struck you down,
And brought you on your knees to own
Repentance of the foulest deed
That ever stained the Christian creed.

III

Not till Alsace and fair Lorraine,
Released, return to France again;
Not till the Turk (ungrateful brute
As ever fawn'd or lick'd a foot)
Is from the kennel, where we kept
The mongrel, kick'd to whence he crept.

IV

We think of those (can we forget
Their crimes, unexpiated yet?)
Who first devised the coward plan
To fight with women in their van,
Who shell'd the Red Cross, fired Louvain,
And wreak'd their anger on the slain.

V

Peace! yes; but not with fiends like these,
Poisoners on land, and on the seas
Pirates! who only dared to meet
The trader, or the fisher fleet,
And from safe bulwarks, looking down,
Gloated, and let their victims drown!

VI

Peace! not till Prussian pride is crush'd,
And your ambitious boasting hush'd!
Not while a God in heaven abides,
And Frightfulness o'er Freedom rides!
To such as you, thus saith the Lord,
Not peace, but an avenging sword!

VII

That sword of ten-times temper'd steel
Your inmost soul like fire shall feel,
Till, to its utmost limit urged,
Ambition from your blood is purged,
And earth for ever purified
Of German greed and Prussian pride!