'My Crown Prince was fine and fair,' a sorrowful <br />father said, <br />'But he marched away with his regiment and <br />they tell me that he's dead! <br />'We all must go,' he whispered low, 'We must <br />fight for the Fatherland.' <br />Now the heart of me's torn with the grief I <br />know, and I cannot understand, <br />For none of the Kaiser's princes lie out there <br />where my soldier sleeps; <br />Here's a land where grief is the common lot, but <br />never the Kaiser weeps. <br /> <br />'My Crown Prince was a kindly prince, and his <br />eyes were gentle, too, <br />And glad were the days of his youth to me when <br />his wonderful smile I knew. <br />Then the Kaiser flattered and spoke him well, <br />and he sent him out to die, <br />But his Crown Prince hasn't felt one hurt and <br />the heart of me questions why? <br />He talks of war in his regal way and he boasts <br />of his strength to strike, <br />But his boys all live and he doesn't know what <br />the sting of a bullet's like. <br /> <br />'Rebellion gnaws at the soul of me as I think <br />of his Crown Prince gay, <br />And my Prince cold in the arms of death, and <br />harsh are the things I say. <br />I join with the grief-torn muttering men who <br />challenge the Kaiser's right <br />To build his joys on the graves of ours. We <br />shall rise in our wrath to smite! <br />And this is the thing we shall ask of him: to <br />give us the reason why <br />Our boys must fall on his battlefields, but never <br />his boys must die?'<br /><br />Edgar Albert Guest<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/rebellion-16/
