Page:Armistice Day.djvu/144

122 XIV

Across the North Sea, in gray weather, swims a sullen argosy of ships that once were the playthings of an Emperor;

Tall ships, swift ships, and ships that go in the water like fishes,

Strong ships, costly ships—

(We had poured our gold and silver out to buy these iron chess-men,

It was to have been a mighty game between us and England!

We were to have gambled for the lien of the oceans, and for all the ports that lie scattered like jewels on the world's breast;

But...they have signed the armistice, and our pawns were never played!)

Futile and impotent they come, and are met by the ministers of inexorable judgment,

By the fleets of Britain and America,

Not with conclusive thunder-clap, but with silence more conclusive still,

And are gathered to a Scottish harbor, there to lie scowling in the mists—

The Day has dawned; has passed; but not as we had dreamed it....