Retinue and other poems / by Katharine Lee Bates [electronic text]
About this Item
Title
Retinue and other poems / by Katharine Lee Bates [electronic text]
Author
Bates, Katharine Lee, 1859-1929
Publication
New York: E.P. Dutton & Co.
1918
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"Retinue and other poems / by Katharine Lee Bates [electronic text]." In the digital collection American Verse Project. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/BAQ6221.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 24, 2024.
Pages
ONLY MULES
"The submarine was quite within its rights in sinking the cargo of the Armenian,—1,422 mules valued at $191,400."
No matter; we are only mules And slow to understand
descriptionPage 19
We drown according to the rulesOf war, we contraband
War reckons us as shot and shell,As so much metal lost.And mourns the dollars gone to swellThe monstrous bill of cost.
Would that we had been wrought of steelAnd not of quivering flesh!Of iron, not of nerves that feel,And maddened limbs that thresh
The sucking seas in stubborn strifeFor that dim right of oursTo what no factory fashions, life,No Edison endowers.
Our last wild screams are choked; you knowIt does not matter, forWe're only mules that suffered so,And contraband of war.
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