Page:Canadian poems of the great war.djvu/230

 A. C. Stewart

Head of the firm of A. C. Stewart & Co., tunnel and bridge con tractors, Fort William, Ontario, Born in County Down, Ireland, August 16th, 1867. Came to Ontario when a small child, and grew up on a farm in Pickering township. In early manhood entered upon a career as an employee in railway construction, and steadily rose in the business until he became an independent con tractor.

��i

��THE SHELL

r M the High-Explosive Shell,

The Giant Shell ! The lathed and polished copper-ringed, the Masterpiece

of Hell,

The deadly Shell ! Sired by the God of Death

In destruction s maddened mood, Nurtured in the womb of Wrath

Queen of devastation s brood ; From my mother earthquake-torn, I, the lyddite-souled, was born.

I am the Shell !

I m the Shell ! The crashing Shell, The nation-wrecking, race-destroying, world-engulfing

Shell,

The murderous Shell! I m the final god and first, Worshipped, vilified, accurst, There are no more gods save me,

Nothing human or divine, Neither on the land nor sea,

Ever held command like mine, Earth is whirling in my spell, I am the Shell !

The Foster-Son of Science, that hath studied long and

well

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