Page:Canadian poems of the great war.djvu/66

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W. A. Fraser

Widely known as a novelist and short story writer. Author of 'The Eye of a God, 'Mooswa and Others of the Boundaries', 'The Outcasts,' 'Thoroughbreds', 'The Blood Lilies', 'Brave Hearts; 'Thirteen Men', 'The Lone Furrow', 'The Three Save' etc. 'The Outcasts', as an animal story, has rarely been equalled. William Alexander Fraser was born and educated in the county of Pictou, Nova Scotia. Has lived in New York, Boston, India, and in the Canadian Northwest. Is now a resident of Toronto.

THE DAY

HERE'S to the day, Kaiser, when you shall die
And pass into that living death that outlasts life.
There is not glory, but eternal gloom for you:
For you the gourd of life has held but poisoned wine;
Its ashes of regret lie crusted on your lips.
Beside the leper of the world you stand outcast—
Beside the Turk.

You leave the imprint of destruction where you pass;
The unborn children of your brutish tribes
Shall rise to curse you in the days to come.
Since when loves God a thief—the slayer of a child—
That you should blazon on your belted Huns In blatant blasphemy, 'Gott mit uns'?
Alone the Turk's with you.

Where lie in death the old and young,
Where weep within the mothers of the sons,
And you, 'War Lord,' cannot return one life.
Not kin of God, you, but of the Turk.

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