# WAR IS KIND

DO NOT WEEP, MAIDEN, FOR WAR IS KIND.
BECAUSE YOUR LOVER THREW WILD HANDS TOWARD THE SKY
AND THE AFFRIGHTED STEED RAN ON ALONE,
DO NOT WEEP.
WAR IS KIND.

HOARSE, BOOMING DRUMS OF THE REGIMENT,
LITTLE SOULS WHO THIRST FOR FIGHT,
THESE MEN WERE BORN TO DRILL AND DIE.
THE UNEXPLAINED GLORY FLIES ABOVE THEM,
GREAT IS THE BATTLE-GOD, GREAT, AND HIS KINGDOM—
A FIELD WHERE A THOUSAND CORPSES LIE.

DO NOT WEEP, BABE, FOR WAR IS KIND.
BECAUSE YOUR FATHER TUMBLED IN THE YELLOW TRENCHES,
RAGED AT HIS BREAST, GULPED AND DIED,
DO NOT WEEP,
WAR IS KIND.

SSWIFT BLAZING FLAG OF THE REGIMENT,
EAGLE WITH CREST OF RED AND GOLD,
THESE MEN WERE BORN TO DRILL AND DIE.
POINT FOR THEM THE VIRTUE OF SLAUGHTER,
MAKE PLAIN TO THEM THE EXCELLENCE OF KILLING
AND A FIELD WHERE A THOUSAND CORPSES LIE.

MOTHER WHOSE HEART HUNG HUMBLE AS A BUTTON
ON THE BRIGHT SPLENDID SHROUD OF YOUR SON,
DO NOT WEEP.
WAR IS KIND.

## A LITTLE INK INK MORE OR LESS

A LITTLE INK MORE OR LESS!
IT SURELY CAN'T MATTER?
EVEN THE SKY AND THE OPULENT SEA,
THE PLAINS AND THE HILLS, ALOFF,
HEAR THE UPROAR OF ALL THESE BOOKS.
BUT IT IS ONLY A LITTLE INK MORE OR LESS.

## THE WAYFARER

THE WAYFARER, PERCEIVING THE PATHWAY TO TRUTH,
WAS STRUCK WITH ASTONISHMENT.
IT WAS THICKLY GROWN WITH WEEDS.
"HA," HE SAID,
"I SEE THAT NONE HAS PASSED HERE
"IN A LONG TIME."
LATER HE SAW THAT EACH WEED
WAS A SINGULAR KNIFE.
"WELL," HE MUMBLED AT LAST,
"DOUBTLESS THERE ARE OTHER ROADS."

## I SAW A MAN

I SAW A MAN PURSUING THE HORIZON;
ROUND AND ROUND THEY SPED.
I WAS DISTURBED AT THIS;
I ACCOSTED THE MAN.

Do You Fear The Wind? Hamlin Garland

Do you fear the force of the wind,
The slash of the rain?
Go face them and fight them,
Be savage again.

Go hungry and cold like the wolf,
Go wade like the crane:
The palms of your hands will thicken,
The skin of your cheek will tan,
You'll grow ragged and weary and swarthy,
But you'll walk like a man!

TO A YOUNG STUDENT A THOUSAND YEARS FROM NOW

PERHAPS YOU LEARN THAT WE ANCIENTS
'AD IN AN OLD HARBOR, NEW YORK,
QUITE A LARGE STATUE OF A WOMAN
HOLDING ALOFT A TORCH,
WHICH WE CALLED THE STATUE OF LIBERTY.

WHEN YOU HEAR THIS AND ARE PUZZLED
AS TO WHAT IT SIGNIFIES, RECALL
THAT IN A MORE ANCIENT PORT CALLED RHODES,
WAS A STATUE AS LARGE, CALLED COLOSSUS,
REPRESENTING THE GOD OF THE SUN,
WHO WAS ALSO A MYTH.

JOHN HICKS

ANN AVERY

ONE MIDNIGHT WHEN THE CHERRY TREES
WERE DRIPPING MADNESS ON THE BREEZE,
ANN AVERY GAVE HERSELF TO ONE
WHOSE RACE HER OWN HAD LEARNED TO SHUN.

NOW ANN SHUTS HER WINDOWS TIGHT
WHEN CHERRY BLOSSOMS SCENT THE NIGHT.

ROBERT ALLEN MALLORY

AS POISONED GRAIN

THREE LONE CROWS
WINGING EAST.
ONE THIN CROW
SCENTS A FEAST.

OVER RYE,
OVER WHEAT,
THREE LONE CROWS
SCENT NIG MEAT.

ABOVE A FIELD
OF RANK WILD RICE
THREE LONE CROWS
CIRCLE TWICE.

THREE LONE CROWS
TEARING APART
A ONCE FIRM BREAST
TO FIND THE HEART.

HOW SHE DIED
NO ONE KNOWS,
NOR WHEN HER HEART
KILLED THREE LONE CROWS.

ROBERT ALLEN MALLORY

## Calvary Jessie B. Rittenhouse

I walked alone to my Calvary,
And no man carried the cross for me.
Carried the cross? Nay, no man knew
The fearful load I bent unto,
But each as we met upon the way
Spoke me fair of the journey I walked that day.

I came alone to my Calvary,
And high was the hill and bleak to see,
But lo, as I scaled its flinty side,
A thousand went up to be crucified!
A thousand kept the way with me,
But never a cross my eye could see.

## Analysis Sara Henderson Hay

I am as one who has a starving anger,
A metaphysical want in his soul's middle;
And yet what food will satisfy that hunger
Remains my stubborn riddle.

Because for some inexplicable reason
I have preferred preversely to deny
That I was hungry; I have practiced treason
To lay the anguish by.

M

My skinny soul I caution: "Do not taste --
Nausea is worse than any hunger felt."
I am as one who swears he will subsist
By tightening up his belt.

Unless I go about to mend my ways,
The creature, famishing, will forfeit breath.
I might discover, one of these fine days,
That I had starved to death.

Dillon

"Yours be the pathlessness beyond the West,
Yours be the dream, unravished,
Not the round planet, explored, disputed and possessed,
The map emblazoned and the boundaries drawn,
Earth is behind you, let the Mind march on."

What Thomas An Buile Said in A Pub

James Stephens

I saw God. Do you doubt it?
Do you dare to doubt it?
I saw the Almighty Man. His hand
Was resting on a mountain, and
He looked upon the World and all about it:
I saw him plainer than you see me now,
You mustnt doubt it.

He was not satisfied;
His look was all dissatisfied.
His beard swung on a wind far out of sight
Behind the World's curve, and there was light
Most fearful from His forehead, and He sighed,
"That star went always wrong, and from the start
I was dissatisfied."

He lifted up His hand -
I say he heaved a dreadful hand
Over the spinning Earth. Then I said, "stay,
You must not strike it, God; I'm in the way;
And I will never move from where I stand."
He said, "Dear child, I feared that you were dead,"
And stayed his hand.

Does It Matter?

Siegfried Sassoon

Does it matter? - losing your leg? . . .
For people will always be kind,
When the others come in after hunting
To gobble their muffins and eggs.

Does it matter? - losing your sight? . . .
There's such splendid work for the blind;
And people will always be kind,
As you sit on the terrace remembering
And turning your face to the light.

Do they matter? - those dreams from the pit? . . .
You can drink and forget and be glad,
And people won't say that you're mad;
For they'll know that you fought for your country,
And no one will worry a bit.