C. L. Graves

“ Till, shortly after five o'clock,
When business people homeward flock,
From all superfluous verbiage freed
Comes Joffre's calm laconic screed,
And all the bellowings of the town
Quelled by the voice of Truth die down,
Enabling you and me to win
Twelve hours' release from Rumour's din. ”

“ When souls are shown in all their nakedness,
Your devastating egotism stands out
Denuded of the last remaining clout.
You own our cause is just, yet can't refrain
From libelling those who made its justice plain ”

“ Yet, whatever fate befalls you, as the ages onward roll
You will live in deathless lustre on your country's Golden Roll,
For you faced the German bullies with the stiffest of stiff backs—
Burgomaster Max! ”

“ He issued his command:
"Go forth, and smite the enemy
Upon his native strand."
Sailing by night and veiled in mist,
His swiftest ships of war
Rained death on two defenceless towns
For half an hour or more,
Till they had slain and wounded babes
And women by the score. ”

“ Believe Me, friends, these grievous woes
Deprive Me of My due repose,
And, though enforced by higher need,
Make My Imperial bosom bleed."
As the fat spider wipes its eye
Over each strangulated fly ”

“ And the arm-chair band (of which I am one) ,
Elderly scribblers, who can't even drill,
And are only good at driving a quill—
Humbled and shamed to my inmost core
I wished I could drop clean through the floor. ”

“ THE PASSING OF THE COW.
[The Soya bean, grown in Japan, Korea and Manchuria, is said to provide a perfect substitute for milk.]
Tout lasse, tout casse, tout passe:
All mortal flesh is grass,
Mown down by Time at the appointed hour ”

“ Has ceased for a season from praising
Lloyd George and Sir Oliver Lodge:
And there hasn't been much in the papers
About the next novel from Caine
(No doubt he's in Flanders, the guest of commanders
Who reverence infinite brain) . ”

“ Guides the nation's brain and guides it solely.
Now Mozart's serene and joyous magic
Yields to Richard Strauss, the hæmorrhagic. [*]
Now the eagle changing to the vulture
Preaches rapine in the name of culture.
Now the Prussian Junker, blind with fury,
Claims to be God's counsel, judge and jury.
While the authentic German genius slumbers,
Cast into the limbo of back numbers.
*↑ Great play is made in Strauss's Elektra with the "slippery blood" motive. ”