Page:Canadian poems of the great war.djvu/234

 A. C. Stewart

I wield autocratic sway, When I speak the serfs obey, Flung forward in their multitudes that I may blast and

slay. I am the Shell !

I m the Shell, The blighting Shell, Of the myriads that have mustered I alone know how

they fell,

Corps, division and platoon, Flung in fragments at the moon Surging on in swift array,

Armies meet and melt away [clay.

Confounded, and compounded with their basic matter, From the belching of my breath Plunge Niagaras of Wrath, That whelm the marching millions in colossal waves of

death.

Youth the valiant, blighted, dies As I scream across the skies, Flinging Wreck and Desolation to the nations as their

prize :

From the Fortress of the Soul I explode the mind s control,

And horror-maddened human things echo my echo s roll. In my orgy fierce and dread,

Stumbling o er the shapeless slain, Stricken deeper than the dead

Cower the shattered soul and brain, And grinning idiots babble at the terrified insane.

I am the Shell,

The Lathed and Polished Copper-ringed, the Master piece of Hell, The maddening Shell!

I m the Shell, The Dark ning Shell !

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