Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume IX. Tragedy: Humor. 1904. | | | | Humorous Poems: IV. Ingenuities: Oddities | | Siege of Belgrade | | Anonymous |
| | | AN AUSTRIAN army, awfully arrayed, | |
| Boldly by battery besieged Belgrade. | |
| Cossack commanders cannonading come, | |
| Dealing destruction’s devastating doom. | |
| Every endeavor engineers essay, | 5 |
| For fame, for fortune fighting,—furious fray! | |
| Generals ’gainst generals grapple—gracious God! | |
| How honors Heaven heroic hardihood! | |
| Infuriate, indiscriminate in ill, | |
| Kindred kill kinsmen, kinsmen kindred kill. | 10 |
| Labor low levels longest loftiest lines; | |
| Men march mid mounds, mid moles, mid murderous mines; | |
| Now noxious, noisy numbers nothing, naught | |
| Of outward obstacles, opposing ought; | |
| Poor patriots, partly purchased, partly pressed, | 15 |
| Quite quaking, quickly “Quarter! Quarter!” quest. | |
| Reason returns, religious right redounds, | |
| Suwarrow stops such sanguinary sounds. | |
| Truce to thee, Turkey! Triumph to thy train, | |
| Unwise, unjust, unmerciful Ukraine! | 20 |
| Vanish, vain victory! vanish, victory vain! | |
| Why wish we warfare? Wherefore welcome were | |
| Xerxes, Ximenes, Xanthus, Xavier? | |
| Yield, yield, ye youths! ye yeomen, yield your yell! | |
| Zeus’s, Zarpater’s, Zoroaster’s zeal, | 25 |
| Attracting all, arms against acts appeal! | | | | |
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