Vi

“Gehorsam.” It is seldom that one hears The German tongue commended. Yet I find No spell more swift, more potent to unbind The spirit’s shades in some fine phrase that clears An entrance to the import of the years, Where speech, unwinding as thought’s coils unwind, Makes landfall, and companioning man’s mind, Ends in the Innermost, whereto he steers. And many a haunting solitary sound In that strange tongue, with doubling content fraught, Booms at the ear of conscience, whose profound Responses in that energy are caught, And Teuton loyalty, that holds its ground, Sweeps Europe still, and sets a world at naught.

HESEPE, 4th July