Robert Norwood
For when man gathers overmuch
God is exchanged for paltry dust ;
And when God goes the devil comes
In panoply of armies:
Drums beating
Trumpets blowing
Flags fluttering
Men hating, fighting, bleeding, dying;
Women wailing and beating their breasts;
Cities in conflagration;
Tall towers tumbling to an accompaniment of thunder,
Tumbling down among the statues and the pictures,
Silencing the song of the singers,
Making the beautiful ugly,
Smothering in wide encompassing smoke
The children the glad, the wonderful children
God s lilies of laughter
His immaculate ones!
I tell you gold is the cause of war, That war is the price we pay for gold Gold for which we give God!
You will not do this thing again !
What thing?
Mistake of owning overmuch.
��H
��HORUM FORTISSIMI
ORUM Fortissimi! thus Caesar said
He who had found the ancient Belgians brave
And still he comes to place upon the grave
Of Louvain and Liege this merited,
Immortal tribute to their mighty dead.
Can we give less than mighty Caesar gave?
Shall we not rather give our best to save
These for whom all those nameless Caesars bled?
�� �
