Page:Captain Craig; a book of poems.djvu/194



War shook the land where Levi dwelt, And fired the dismal wrath he felt, That such a doom was ever wrought As his, to toil while others fought; To toil, to dream—and still to dream, With one day barren as another; To consummate, as it would seem, The dry despair of his old mother.

Far off one afternoon began The sound of man destroying man; And Levi, sick with nameless rage, Condemned again his heritage, And sighed for scars that might have come, And would, if once he could have sundered Those harsh, inhering claims of home That held him while he cursed and wondered.

Another day, and then there came, Rough, bloody, ribald, hungry, lame, But yet themselves, to Levi's door, Two remnants of the day before.