Sunday War Poet...

Harriet Munroe

1860-1936

On the Porch 

As I lie roofed in, screened in, 

From the pattering rain, 

The summer rain— 

As I lie 

Snug and dry,       

And hear the birds complain: 

Oh, billow on billow, 

Oh, roar on roar, 

Over me wash 

The seas of war.         

Over me—down—down— 

Lunges and plunges 

The huge gun with its one blind eye, 

The armored train, 

And, swooping out of the sky,       

The aeroplane. 

Down—down— 

The army proudly swinging 

Under gay flags, 

The glorious dead heaped up like rags,         

A church with bronze bells ringing, 

A city all towers, 

Gardens of lovers and flowers, 

The round world swinging 

In the light of the sun:       

All broken, undone, 

All down—under 

Black surges of thunder … 

Oh, billow on billow 

Oh, roar on roar,         

Over me wash 

The seas of war … 

As I lie roofed in, screened in, 

From the pattering rain, 

The summer rain—         

As I lie 

Snug and dry, 

And hear the birds complain.

***

Harriet Munroe was an American writer, scholar, literary critic, poet and patron of the arts. She is best known as the editor and publisher of Poetry magazine which made its debut in 1902.

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