<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Exile</h1><p>Heribert Freimuth, hyphenated American, writes:</p><h1 align="smallcaps" class="head">1. Of Germany</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">SHE had a place midmost among the nations--</p><p class="line">Woman, large-built, for the elemental throes;</p><p class="line">Her frame a harp superb for the exultations</p><p class="line">Of Life, what time his hands were magical</p><p class="line">With starry rhythms to draw from her the chant</p><p class="line">Inimitable of her being, all</p><p class="line">Mysteriously resonant--</p><p class="line">And for his solemn, heavy-fingered woes.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Great-hearted she, and like a mother's</p><p class="line">Her voice was then!</p><p class="line">There was not one among men</p><p class="line">Fibred for Freedom's song</p><p class="line">--Her music--but was hers: and she was ours:</p><p class="line">More than another's</p><p class="line">Her mighty voice doth yet of right belong</p><p class="line">To the great-chorded harmony</p><p class="line">Of Man that wants it now.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Ours still the song that still</p><p class="line">Vibrates with her own voice: but she—-</p><p class="line">Bewitched by warlock Powers</p><p class="line">That steal away the will--</p><p class="line">Is stol'n from us.</p><p class="line">Our joy that was in her they have made dumb.</p><p class="line">Now in her place a stranger stands:</p><p class="line">For face, a mask: her brow</p><p class="line">Blind with a wild possession and piteous</p><p class="line">In its blank arrogancy: numb</p><p class="line">Is she to all old kinship, strange</p><p class="line">To the sisterhood of the Lands.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">As if caught in a curse,</p><p class="line">She suffers all some werwolf change:</p><p class="line">Horror is in her hands:</p><p class="line">Her womanhood perverse</p><p class="line">Preys upon that it once caressed:</p><p class="line">The mother-fountains of her breast</p><p class="line">Turn to a treacherous, devouring drouth</p><p class="line">And suckle madness. Ay, she is</p><p class="line">Changed all; but most her mouth,</p><p class="line">That wonder-teller, fairy-eloquent</p><p class="line">As April's when the influence of the South</p><p class="line">Opens her lips with summer promises.</p><p class="line">Her spirit on what wildwood breath</p><p class="line">Would issue, leading forth for our embrace</p><p class="line">From out the ever unspent</p><p class="line">Treasure of joys she had in hiding,</p><p class="line">Some unimagined grace</p><p class="line">Whereof, save from her mouth we had no tiding--</p><p class="line">Her mouth that now, wolfishly, barks out death.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">O now with what vile rout</p><p class="line">Of shameful things that wait upon her</p><p class="line">She mocks at those her younger years!</p><p class="line">Bewitched, she hath gone out</p><p class="line">From the company of her peers</p><p class="line">Boasting of her dishonour.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And who, of those that honoured once her name,</p><p class="line">Seeing in her still the light she used to be,</p><p class="line">Howso obscured, shall lead her back? Her own</p><p class="line">Bleed inly with her shame:</p><p class="line">Their every nerve aches to her infamy.</p><p class="line">Who love her most, they are least prone</p><p class="line">To absolve her unrepentant: to the last,</p><p class="line">Implacable in their loving, they would strive,</p><p class="line">Withstanding her false will, by any means to cast</p><p class="line">Out of her body the deceitful Thing</p><p class="line">Whereto she hath given her womanhood</p><p class="line">To be its substance, glorying</p><p class="line">Because it pulses in her blood.</p><p class="line">Vibrates and is alive</p><p class="line">Throughout her many-chorded frame.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">He that most loves her, let him now be hard</p><p class="line">Against her pitiful distress,</p><p class="line">Lest it disarm his love of power to save her!</p><p class="line">I dare not pity her howso by battle marred,</p><p class="line">Howso sharp anguish cruelly engrave her</p><p class="line">Dear old-time loveliness.</p><p class="line">For I was bred of her and know</p><p class="line">Her too self-pitying weakness:</p><p class="line">How loving Liberty a little, to his foe</p><p class="line">She yielded up herself with wicked meekness;</p><p class="line">For when her love of him brought her to peril, she</p><p class="line">Failed in her little love and grew ashamed she had loved liberty.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">2. Of His Youth</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">ALWAYS I see you, Mother, as a fair</p><p class="line">Woman, pleasant in any place to greet,</p><p class="line">And smiling with a smile</p><p class="line">Childishly innocent.</p><p class="line">O it is worse in you than any guile</p><p class="line">That, evilly-mated,</p><p class="line">You are so debonair,</p><p class="line">So well-content.</p><p class="line">Spirit so incomplete--</p><p class="line">Soul so unconsecrated</p><p class="line">By memory or passion, to rebel!</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">I wonder if Demeter's sunny-eyed</p><p class="line">Daughter submitted so</p><p class="line">Obsequiously, once she was Pluto's bride--</p><p class="line">Smiled so, being Queen in Hell</p><p class="line">And mistress of her foe!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Did she--doth she so smile,</p><p class="line">Hers is a better right than yours,</p><p class="line">Dreadfully mild mother of my exile!</p><p class="line">For though, in chambers dark</p><p class="line">Beyond imagining, his love she endures,</p><p class="line">Its nakedness is not so stark</p><p class="line">As your Ægisthean lord's,</p><p class="line">To whose tyrannous pleasure, rather</p><p class="line">Than bid him do his worst,</p><p class="line">Your too complaisant beauty accords</p><p class="line">What erst</p><p class="line">Was sacred to my father.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Freedom!--'Twas he begat me! He whose high begetting</p><p class="line">Sings through my being that I am his son</p><p class="line">Sprung of his blood and nation:</p><p class="line">Sings with your young voice, Mother,</p><p class="line">In the utterly sweet singing</p><p class="line">Of that forgotten March when Germany</p><p class="line">Was at her love's beginning:</p><p class="line">Music that still, in each and every one</p><p class="line">Of all my nerves is mine beyond forgetting,</p><p class="line">My spirit's exultation</p><p class="line">That he,</p><p class="line">He was my sire, none other!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">I was young when he perished. I remember</p><p class="line">Those far days, and how then you delighted</p><p class="line">In his babe. It is my November</p><p class="line">Now, and your joy in me long ago blighted.</p><p class="line">But in me it is ever quick-water,</p><p class="line">The bubbling-up, throbbing</p><p class="line">Of that long-ago joy,</p><p class="line">That cradle-singing that before I was a boy</p><p class="line">Was mine!</p><p class="line">O, still a spring divine</p><p class="line">Amid this world of slaughter,</p><p class="line">It is the heedless gay</p><p class="line">Trill of some bold November robin</p><p class="line">Whose small roundelay</p><p class="line">Breaks down my grief and sets him sobbing.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Though I shall always carry about the mark</p><p class="line">Of that grim boyhood in a world all dark</p><p class="line">To me--Orestes-like, sun-worshipper am I.</p><p class="line">But chiefly Thee I praise, O pitiless Apollo,</p><p class="line">That, unlike young Orestes, me thou maddest not</p><p class="line">With the Avenger's Cry</p><p class="line">Against a queen so miserably royal:</p><p class="line">That me, O pitiless One, thou badest not</p><p class="line">Wipe out in blood my mother's shame</p><p class="line">Striking at her with dreadful hands.</p><p class="line">But, westering, bad'st me follow</p><p class="line">Thee hither oversea,</p><p class="line">To this, that of all lands</p><p class="line">Was worthy of my father's name:</p><p class="line">America, ample, republican and loyal</p><p class="line">To Freedom her first love, and arbiter to be</p><p class="line">Of Justice: pitiless, clear-eyed</p><p class="line">As Thou, shadow-denier:</p><p class="line">Thou, chain-of-slumber breaker:</p><p class="line">Thou, mocker at the tyrant and his bride:</p><p class="line">Resolute world-awaker,</p><p class="line">Multiplier</p><p class="line">Of rebels against vain authority!</p><p class="line">This is thy land, Apollo, and at last like thee</p><p class="line">The world's peace-maker.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Wonderful as to a fugitive slave</p><p class="line">When he creeps trembling out of the hunted wood</p><p class="line">Into the welcoming security</p><p class="line">Of a friendly hearth, her welcome was to me.</p><p class="line">Slowly to it my numb being unfroze;</p><p class="line">Till when I understood</p><p class="line">That she too, this America, had foes,</p><p class="line">How eagerly all that I was</p><p class="line">All the Apollo-worship of my spirit, clave</p><p class="line">To her good cause!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Cut sharply from its trunk, my twig</p><p class="line">Flourished upon the free</p><p class="line">Flowing, exuberant sap of that young tree</p><p class="line">Of Liberty, whereon I was engrafted:</p><p class="line">I made bold to declare</p><p class="line">The secret manhood in me to that sun,</p><p class="line">Responded to the greetings wafted</p><p class="line">Me on that virginal air:</p><p class="line">Freedom pulsed through me, faith in me grew big,</p><p class="line">Ousted my fear and took me all for its dominion.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">With me there was transplanted</p><p class="line">Into this generous soil, this orchard of my choice,</p><p class="line">So much of the old Germany</p><p class="line">As it was granted</p><p class="line">To a young lad to bear away with him.</p><p class="line">Answering to the deeds of Liberty</p><p class="line">There would thrill in the fibres of my being</p><p class="line">Many an old clear voice</p><p class="line">Of sunny Rhineland or of grim</p><p class="line">Forest: my new world was forever freeing</p><p class="line">Of its dumb shame some unremembered part of me.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And when in battle for her, I became</p><p class="line">One body with America, and shed</p><p class="line">Wholly mine orphanage of shame,</p><p class="line">No more was I an exile hope-defeated,</p><p class="line">Mine was this country of the exile's hope:</p><p class="line">Even my father was no longer dead,</p><p class="line">No longer was he of achievement cheated:</p><p class="line">His spirit with mine exulted and found scope</p><p class="line">For all its courage in the storm</p><p class="line">That burst upon America: I knew him</p><p class="line">Then ever beside me, and before</p><p class="line">Ever that Siegfried-murdering Attila,</p><p class="line">Ever that sinister Ægisthean form</p><p class="line">That pursues Freedom if he may</p><p class="line">Seduce his bride from him once more:</p><p class="line">And here in this New World, wrestling with him, we threw him.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">3. To the Allies</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">O NOT because ye are guiltless, but because</p><p class="line">In your own selves ye chiefly hate</p><p class="line">The lingering old fierce lust to dominate:</p><p class="line">With Mammonry and Might</p><p class="line">To override the faithful laws</p><p class="line">Of Freedom, that uphold</p><p class="line">With a divine equality, each people in his right:--</p><p class="line">Because the Day is not yet old</p><p class="line">That broke for you upon the haunted Night</p><p class="line">When lying Ashteroth</p><p class="line">Had you seduced, in the occult half eclipse</p><p class="line">Of her slim moon, to forego the bread of truth</p><p class="line">And suck the baleful honey of her lips</p><p class="line">That promise treacherously:--</p><p class="line">The day is not yet old and still your flesh</p><p class="line">Is tainted in you with the envenomed sweet</p><p class="line">Of the seductress, as itself had been a meat</p><p class="line">Offered to the Idol:--</p><p class="line">O because afresh</p><p class="line">Ye nations are returned to freedom only now.</p><p class="line">She doth your hands endow</p><p class="line">With virtue against this passion suicidal</p><p class="line">Wherein my poor illustrious Germany</p><p class="line">Gives herself still to Manhood's Counterfeit.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">(Not as Psyche, deceived</p><p class="line">Far otherwise, to her undoing,</p><p class="line">Suspected of infamy her glorious Lover</p><p class="line">And put the god to flight,</p><p class="line">This hath fondly believed</p><p class="line">The subtle serpent's wooing,</p><p class="line">She hath not lifted up the glittering cover</p><p class="line">Nor guessed her shameful plight.)</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Tyrannous lies on her still</p><p class="line">The haunted night</p><p class="line">Wound all about a will</p><p class="line">That cannot but obey:</p><p class="line">Till ye shall shock her wide-eyed to the day</p><p class="line">Of True Power, and the glory that it is</p><p class="line">Already in the awakened air:</p><p class="line">Cheat Hell,</p><p class="line">Shatter the dream she dreams and shiver</p><p class="line">The abominable spell</p><p class="line">As kindliness could never!</p><p class="line">Then shall she see how graciously beyond</p><p class="line">The hard horizon edge</p><p class="line">Apollo lifteth up his shining wand:</p><p class="line">Then shall she hear the stellar mysteries.</p><p class="line">Mute to her all night long,</p><p class="line">Make answer in your voices and respond</p><p class="line">At the sign of a new day:</p><p class="line">Then shall she know the august</p><p class="line">High privilege</p><p class="line">Of Very Power</p><p class="line">That is divinely strong,</p><p class="line">For like the sun in his uprising,</p><p class="line">He cannot help but must</p><p class="line">Evoke with magic ray</p><p class="line">The myriadicity of joy, surprising</p><p class="line">Out of each indistinguishable clod of clay</p><p class="line">A different flower:</p><p class="line">She too, awake, shall say</p><p class="line">"I can no more contend against this power."</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Ye shall shock her wide-eyed,</p><p class="line">Because, awakened from your own so-heavy dreams of pride,</p><p class="line">Already in yourselves</p><p class="line">Ye begin to know the quick thrill</p><p class="line">That is like the little feet of elves</p><p class="line">Merry in a hill:</p><p class="line">Already the numb, the cold</p><p class="line">Separate molecules of your earth</p><p class="line">Have begun stirring toward the summer, and grown bold</p><p class="line">With February mirth</p><p class="line">To conspire together and loose the hold</p><p class="line">Of separation: ye commence</p><p class="line">Telling, among the astonished rocks and roots</p><p class="line">With eager, brave inconsequence.</p><p class="line">Of the April shoots</p><p class="line">That are to issue thence.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Among you is beginning</p><p class="line">Another year, another age!</p><p class="line">And she,--</p><p class="line">Her false fond dream irrevocably fled,</p><p class="line">The Furies she invited having spent their rage</p><p class="line">And sunk exhausted on their leagues of dead--</p><p class="line">She shall awake, but first to see</p><p class="line">In the blank dawning of disaster,</p><p class="line">Her cannon grinning</p><p class="line">Upon her, with delight insane</p><p class="line">Of that first crime, preluding vaster,</p><p class="line">Wherein, betraying a little people's trust</p><p class="line">By the mere sacrilege of Power,</p><p class="line">She trod its valour for an hour</p><p class="line">Into the nameless dust,</p><p class="line">And branded in her brain</p><p class="line">For all eternity</p><p class="line">BELGIUM--challenge forever</p><p class="line">To whoso would endeavour</p><p class="line">Henceforward to seduce</p><p class="line">Her spirit: there, blazing behind her eyes,</p><p class="line">With inarticulable agonies</p><p class="line">Fiery to wither and annihilate</p><p class="line">Any least creeping shadow of thought</p><p class="line">Ere it can whisper an excuse</p><p class="line">That might abate</p><p class="line">The horror of her soul</p><p class="line">For this, unspeakable, that she hath wrought.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">O, presently across this trampled slough</p><p class="line">Of bloody hours,</p><p class="line">Will lie the reconciling light,</p><p class="line">And grass and gracious meadow flowers</p><p class="line">Will cover it from sight:</p><p class="line">To her too, will return the blessed days</p><p class="line">Of vision: Life's amaze</p><p class="line">Will kindle in that brow,</p><p class="line">And deep within that tortured brain</p><p class="line">There will well-up anew the healing spring</p><p class="line">Of music, for whose mighty murmuring</p><p class="line">The heart o' the earth is fain.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Presently!--O but first,</p><p class="line">(There is no cure else for this obscene possession)</p><p class="line">Down must she go under defeat</p><p class="line">And fling her boasting down.</p><p class="line">Either herself must perish</p><p class="line">With her deceit,</p><p class="line">Or she shall cease to cherish</p><p class="line">This shadowy Thing accurst</p><p class="line">This Hell-begotten Hope,</p><p class="line">That she crowned with the high crown</p><p class="line">Of her pride.</p><p class="line">On no side</p><p class="line">Evasion: no new scope</p><p class="line">Left it: but blank surrender and abject confession. . .</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Then with the end of strife</p><p class="line">Comes knowledge of her need--</p><p class="line">To repent: to take the oath</p><p class="line">To Liberty: to plead</p><p class="line">--If such a thing might be--</p><p class="line">That, after final rout,</p><p class="line">With all the battle won.</p><p class="line">Truth should lay by now sword for surgeon's knife:</p><p class="line">Discover in his hiding, and pluck out</p><p class="line">Of his hold in the quick of the brain</p><p class="line">That greedy, that malignant growth</p><p class="line">Which like a heaven-obscuring tree</p><p class="line">Shadowed her days, and shut her from the Sun</p><p class="line">That shining upon all the lands shone upon hers in vain.</p></div></body></html> · Great War