<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Dies Irae</h1><h1 align="center" class="head">To the German Kaiser</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Amazing</span> Monarch! who at various times,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Posing as Europe's self-appointed saviour,</p><p class="line">Afforded copy for our ribald rhymes</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">By your behaviour;</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">We nursed no malice; nay, we thanked you much</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Because your head-piece, swollen like a tumour,</p><p class="line">Lent to a dullish world the needed touch</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">Of saving humour.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">What with your wardrobes stuffed with warrior gear,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Your gander-step parades, your prancing Prussians,</p><p class="line">Your menaces that shocked the deafened sphere</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">With rude concussions;</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Your fist that turned the pinkest rivals pale</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Alike with sceptre, chisel, pen or palette,</p><p class="line">And could at any moment, gloved in mail,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">Smite like a mallet;</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Master of all the Arts, and, what was more,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Lord of the limelight blaze that let us know it --</p><p class="line">You seemed a gift designed on purpose for</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">The flippant poet.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Time passed and put to these old jests an end;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Into our open hearts you found admission,</p><p class="line">Ate of our bread and pledged us like a friend</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">Above suspicion.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">You shared our griefs with seeming-gentle eyes;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">You moved among us cousinly entreated;</p><p class="line">Still hiding, under that fair outward guise,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">A heart that cheated.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And now the mask is down, and forth you stand</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Known for a King whose word is no great matter,</p><p class="line">A traitor proved, for every honest hand</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">To strike and shatter.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">This was the "Day" foretold by yours and you</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">In whispers here, and there with beery clamours --</p><p class="line">You and your rat-hole spies and blustering crew</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">Of loud Potsdamers.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And lo, there dawns another, swift and stern,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">When on the wheels of wrath, by Justice' token,</p><p class="line">Breaker of God's own Peace, you shall in turn</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">Yourself be broken.</p></div><p class="byline">SIR OWEN SEAMAN</p><em>Punch, August</em> 19, 1914</body></html> · Great War