The Washington herald., 1916-08-28
rs fer war, call it murder
There you hev it plain an flat;
l don't want to go no furder
Than my Testyment for that


applies at this time. One of the most pitiful
features OF this war, like all wars is the arravins
OF laborers against laborers in the wanton de-
structIon OF labor products If instead of the
hnc language Of the calls to arms we could only
have plain talk expressing the meaning Of war;
IKE Laborcrs, to arms Attack your fellow
iaborers, who, like you have kept the world go
ing and have struggled with bare subsistence
for their pains Attack the products of their
toll while they attack the products of your toll
bereave their women and children and make them
cry out with anguish while the foes do exactly
the same thing to you and yours" Under such
inspiration, with what ardor they would rush
into battle!
Here are the words OF Lowell:
Laborin and laborin' woman
Hev one glory an one shame
Evy thin thets done nhuman
liners all on EN- the same
1t has been said that a great poem on war
IS impossible. Here, it seems 10 me is sue-
sested narrow conception Of the function of
poetry Its highest achievement is to make
people alive to the truth, which includes ueli-
ness as well as beauty, inhumanity as we'll as
humanity. There is great beauty in war as we'll
as great ugliness The two may run together
Behind the ralorous deed there may lurk quail
gethcT only in the human heart To sing Of war as
1t is, to stir the soul of mankind to its real mean.
ing, what an achievement it would be and what a
service to the world How it wouId cIar;fy tbc
meanncsS and the cruelty that can lurk behind
the most splendid, inspiring patriotism, with its
national hate, called by Goethe strongest and
most violent in the lowest stages OF culture :"
II would also celebrate the hne patriotism eulo-
glzed by Goethe, where hate disappears, where
one stands above nations and where one regards
the veal or woe of neghbor people as ones
own"
Associated with war there is a theme, SEEM
ingy material and prosaic but really human
mat might be inspiring to poets, one new to
poetry; or, at any rate, much neglected: Taxes
After being burdcned by this war the fighters are
gong to bear another burden in the cost of the
war Even those who win will have to paw in
spite OF any possible indemnity As usual, the
taxes Will fall most heavily on those least pre-
pared to bear them. They will not always frank
ly express themselves taxes In this regard
the taxes borne by the poor have consideration
at once pathetic and comic. They will seem not
to be taxes at all. They will be the high cost
one kind OF death
The truth is, it seems to me, that the poets of
To-Day IKE most poets OF the past. arc, in
war to write brilliantly or humanity on the SUBJ
(ect. And when they make the attempt thew fall
INTO conventional ways, They write like the
PoetS ol the past Whcn the ideas about
different from what they now And, what is
even worse, they write on the surface If they
would only break through they would find ma
terial seethlng. Perhaps a great war epic of
this kind would reach its most natural and
spontaneous expression in free verse, alter the
manner Of Whitman.
1t is significant that the new conccptions
of the social organization, so opposed to war
and yet so closely related to the war spirit
should be so lacking in poets. They offer the
great new inspiration and the poets for the
md 1;,l- .L.:-
write graceful jingles. In despair many of the
radicals are trying to write songs Of their own,
for the most part inadequate, fumbling express
sions OF their feelings, not, however, without
certain appeal
Perhaps the present conflict, so tremendous in
its range. will wake up some new poets Al
Of them, however. echoes of the martial spirit
There is work for them to do but unhappy,
little in the way of reward save in the joy
of making people think and feel.