But what have I done in this most mild brochure,
Depicting german manners, to be sure,
Which are so political, what man can write
Unpartisan, without much of " Left" and " Right"?
If so the man you are to provoke this hate
I ask myself to what my crimes relate
High politics I shun — I gave but an impression
Of the Berlin scene, in very impartial fashion
Are we forbidden (and if so by whom)
To mention a man in Kun's or Lenin's room,
Except in belittlement, column after column,
A " Germany puts the Clock back" sort of volume?
I am puzzled by this ubiquitous virulence.
I ask myself the Whither and the Whence.
Is it not fitter that the Brit should know
The sort of sunlessness makes Hitlers grow?
I like the german nation. If they have faults
From the cause thereof every sane mind revolts.
They do but answer persecution with
It's like. What then? Recall flamboyant myth
To warm their hearts at, every other fuel
Denied them — they revive mensur, they duel!
These are but human gestures after all.
From wall-game gazing a yet greater fall
Our anglo-saxon Humpty Dumpty yet
May take — what would your worship care to bet?