THE SUPERMAN

By: Robert Grant
August 21, 2023

A (pro- or anti-) science-, mathematics-, technology-, space-, apocalypse-, dehumanization-, disenchantment-, and/or future-oriented poem published during sf’s emergent Radium Age (c. 1900–1935). Research and selection by Joshua Glenn.

1916 caricature of Kaiser Wilhelm from a special edition of the humorous magazine, *La Baionette’*, produced to entertain French soldiers.

The horror-haunted Belgian plains riven by
      shot and shell
Are strewn with her undaunted sons who
      stayed the jaws of hell.
In every sunny vale of France death is the
      countersign.
The purest blood in Britain’s veins is being
      poured like wine.

Far, far across the crimsoned map the
      impassioned armies sweep.
Destruction flashes down the sky and
      penetrates the deep.
The Dreadnought knows the silent dread,
      and seas incarnadine
Attest the carnival of strife, the madman’s
      battle scene.

Relentless, savage, hot, and grim the
      infuriate columns press
Where terror simulates disdain and danger
      is largess,
Where greedy youth claims death for bride
      and agony seems bliss.
It is the cause, the cause, my soul! which
      sanctifies all this.

Ride, Cossacks, ride! Charge, Turcos,
      charge! The fateful hour has come.
Let all the guns of Britain roar or be forever
      dumb.
The Superman has burst his bonds. With
      Kultur-flag unfurled
And prayer on lip he runs amuck,
      imperilling the world.

The impious creed that might is right in him
      personified
Bids all creation bend before the insatiate
      Teuton pride,
Which, nourished on Valhalla dreams of
      empire unconfined,
Would make the cannon and the sword the
      despots of mankind.

Efficient, thorough, strong, and brave — his
      vision is to kill.
Force is the hearthstone of his might, the
      pole-star of his will.
His forges glow malevolent: their minions
      never tire
To deck the goddess of his lust whose twins
      are blood and fire.

O world grown sick with butchery and
      manifold distress!
O broken Belgium robbed of all save grief
      and ghastliness!
Should Prussian power enslave the world
      and arrogance prevail,
Let chaos come, let Moloch rule, and Christ
      give place to Baal.

— published in The Nation (New York) and collected in A Treasury of War Poetry (1917).

A passage from a 1916 essay (“Bergson’s View of the Issue,” the issue being the meaning of the war), by H. Wildon Carr, in the quarterly journal The Quest, edited by G.R.S. Mead, contains the following passage that helps us understand this poem.

What is the doctrine which forms for Germany the philosophical justification of this war? It may be summed up in one word,— it is the doctrine of the superman. Germany regards herself as the superman among nations. The doctrine of the superman has been expressed most explicitly by Nietzsche, but for the application of the doctrine, or rather for the adoption of the role by modern Germany, Nietzsche is not responsible.

***

THE SUPERMAN

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