Poems (Kennedy)/The Soul of Germany
"THE SOUL OF GERMANY"
THE soul of Germany! How fair it shone
Once in the eyes of all the world,
Soaring in upward flight to sunlit heights,
Its glancing pinions wide unfurled.
Once in the eyes of all the world,
Soaring in upward flight to sunlit heights,
Its glancing pinions wide unfurled.
The soul of Germany was Wagner, Bach;
Was Mozart singing to the stars,
Was Goethe opening vistas bright with dreams,
Was Schiller letting down the day-spring's bars—
Was Mozart singing to the stars,
Was Goethe opening vistas bright with dreams,
Was Schiller letting down the day-spring's bars—
Was Heine calling through the paling night—
Holbein and Hofman with uplifted brush,
Or Gluck's or great Beethoven's wonder touch
Sonorous in the throbbing hush.
Holbein and Hofman with uplifted brush,
Or Gluck's or great Beethoven's wonder touch
Sonorous in the throbbing hush.
These and their kindred Genii were the soul
Of Germany before there fell
Upon her that fierce Hohenzollern blight
With lust of power and scorch of hell—
Of Germany before there fell
Upon her that fierce Hohenzollern blight
With lust of power and scorch of hell—
Her soul before her war-crazed men forgot
The heights for which her "science" stood—
Her soul before her unshamed women went
"Conscript" to unwed motherhood.
The heights for which her "science" stood—
Her soul before her unshamed women went
"Conscript" to unwed motherhood.
But now, where Schumann sang the despot rules,
Sordid with hate the land that Handel knew—
The "soul" of Germany takes far its flight
And vultures wheel where once its radiance flew!
Sordid with hate the land that Handel knew—
The "soul" of Germany takes far its flight
And vultures wheel where once its radiance flew!