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NIETZSCHE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Some worshipped and some bantered, when
Last Line: Be servile to the muse of war.
Alternate Author Name(s): Mackaye, Percy Wallace
Subject(s): Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (1844-1900); Tyranny & Tyrants; War


SOME worshipped and some bantered, when
The prophets of the drawing room
Gossiped of Jesus Christ his doom
Under the reign of Supermen,
And how the Christian world would quake
To hear what Zarathustra spake.

Lo, Zarathustra's voice has spoken:
And they, who use a mad bard's song
To vindicate a tyrant's wrong,
Point to the staring dead for token
Of their triumphant creed, enshrined
In temples of the Teuton mind.

The raving dog-star hath his season:
But when the light beyond our death
Leads back again from Nazareth
The holy star of human reason —
Then will philosophy no more
Be servile to the Muse of War.





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