A million young workmen straight and strong lay stiff on the grass and roads,
And the million are now under soil and their rottening flesh will in the years feed roots of blood-red roses.
Yes, this million of young workmen slaughtered one another and never saw their red hands.
And oh, it would have been a great job of killing and a new and beautiful thing under the sun if the million knew why they hacked and tore each other to death.
The kings are grinning, the Kaiser and the czar—they are alive riding in leather-seated motor cars, and they have their women and roses for ease, and they eat fresh-poached eggs for breakfast, new butter on toast, sitting in tall water-tight houses reading the news of war.
I dreamed a million ghosts of the young workmen rose in their shirts all soaked in crimson … and yelled:
God damn the grinning kings, God damn the kaiser and the czar.
A successful anti-World War I poem. Young men fought and died in that futile war, while the German Kaiser and the Russian Czar survived to live a comfortable life. There is compassion and criticism in this powerful poem.
One of the best poets of our time! And one of his best poems! Someone should send this poem to Putin!
Focused and factual. Facts do not cease to exist because they're being ignored. A work of an intricate mind.
Part 2. Nothing has changed even today. The only change is Kings have given way for putins and xi jinpings. That is all
A most forceful anti war poem. Relevant to this day. " The kings are grinning, the Kaiser and the czar" while….. " A million young workmen straight and strong lay stiff on the grass and roads" dead.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Jesus this dude was nuts