Classic Poem

France watched that ordered nation
Its miracle perform —
Saw Germany transform
Her summer veil of spies
To a tempest of horses and of guns.
Though France be loved with fire and fear
With what allies can France confront them here?
Can flesh and blood resist
The whining ever keener
Of that blast out of the east,
And the heavy undertone
Of yon wheeling symphony of storms?
You shall see the world's substructure
Laid bare unto the bone,
Yet by the high demeanour
Of the chief protagonist
What mighty forms live on.

But how near her breath was gone!
To her sons as they retreated
" Fall back, " she cried, " to Aisne,
To Marne, to Aube, to Seine,
Ere I can strike again
And my battle be completed! "
Unshaken was her strain
Though near her life was gone.