Declaration

Now we are where all these others were
We can no longer easily ignore
The presence of the thing we feared and hated
And consequently underestimated.

Peace was the word: we held it just
To live our ideal lives: but missed
—It was a fatal error—to observe
Democracy must lead as well as serve.

Was Spain: was China: Austria: add to these
All odd recipients of our sympathy;
Add if you will, that it was our inaction
That lost the battle to the opposing faction.

And every day the fashionable madmen rose
To roll old maps in new and different ways,
Until al last they moved their private hell
Into domains our ego loved too well.

This is the cross-road now whose sure result
No man can fathom: but we all have felt
For these events a sharp and predatory guilt,
Which to wipe out must see our life-blood spilt.

Anton Vogt.

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