Other German characteristics we can ignore. The consistent, systematic
lying of the German press, or the grotesque blasphemies of the Kaiser,
can be met by us with contemptuous tolerance. After all, what is is, and
neither falsehood nor bombast will alter it. But this policy of murder
deeply affects not only ourselves but the whole framework of
civilization, so slowly and painfully built upward by the human race.
The Soldier's Epitaph
"HE DIED FOR ENGLAND."
[Inscription on the tombstone of a private soldier, recently killed in
action.]
These four short words his epitaph,
Sublimely simple, nobly plain;
Who adds to them but addeth chaff,
Obscures with husks the golden grain.
Not all the bards of other days,
Not Homer in his loftiest vein,
Not Milton's most majestic strain,
Not the whole wealth of Pindar's lays,
Could bring to that one simple phrase
What were not rather loss than gain;
That elegy so briefly fine,
That epic writ in half a line,
That little which so much conveys,
Whose silence is a hymn of praise
And throbs with harmonies divine.
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