XIV

War is Kind and Other Lines (1899)

A slant of sun on dull brown walls,A forgotten sky of bashful blue.

Toward God a mighty hymn,A song of collisions and cries,Rumbling wheels, hoof-beats, bells,Welcomes, farewells, love-calls, final moans,Voices of joy, idiocy, warning, despair,The unknown appeals of brutes,The chanting of flowers,The screams of cut trees,The senseless babble of hens and wise men —A cluttered incoherency that says at the stars:“O God, save us!”