It seems vainglorious and proud Of Atom-man to boast aloud His prowess homicidal When one remembers how for years, With their rude stones and humble spears, Our sires, at wiping out their peers, Were almost never idle. Despite his under-fissioned art The Hittite made a splendid start Toward smiting lesser nations; While Tamerlane, it's widely known, Without a bomb to call his own Destroyed whole populations. Nor did the ancient Persian need Uranium to kill his Mede, The Viking earl, his foeman. The Greeks got excellent results With swords and engined catapults. A chariot served the Roman. Mere cannon garnered quite a yield On Waterloo's tempestuous field. At Hastings and at Flodden Stout countrymen, with just a bow And arrow, laid their thousands low. And Gettysburg was sodden. Though doubtless now our shrewd machines Can blow the world to smithereens More tidily and so on, Let's give our ancestors their due. Their ways were coarse, their weapons few. But ah! how wondrously they slew With what they had to go on.