<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Kaiser and Belgium</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">He</span> said: "Thou petty people, let me pass.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">What canst thou do but bow to me and kneel?"</p><p class="line">But sudden a dry land caught fire like grass,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And answer hurtled but from shell and steel.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">He looked for silence, but a thunder came</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Upon him, from Liège a leaden hail.</p><p class="line">All Belgium flew up at his throat in flame</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Till at her gates amazed his legions quail.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Take heed, for now on haunted ground they tread;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">There bowed a mightier war lord to his fall:</p><p class="line">Fear! lest that very green grass again grow red</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">With blood of German now as then with Gaul.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">If him whom God destroys He maddens first,</p><p class="line">Then thy destruction slake thy madman's thirst.</p></div><p class="byline">Stephen Phillips</p></body></html> · Great War