Page:The cry for justice - an anthology of the literature of social protest. - (IA cryforjusticea00sinc).pdf/598

 Carry his body hence,— Kings must have slaves; Kings climb to eminence Over men's graves; So this man's eye is dim;— Throw the earth over him.

Doubt

(From "The Present Hour")

(One of a group of six sonnets, entitled "Carnage," written in September, 1914)

So thin, so frail the opalescent ice Where yesterday, in lordly pageant, rose The monumental nations—the repose Of continents at peace! Realities Solid as earth they seemed; yet in a trice Their bastions crumbled in the surging floes Of unconceivable, inhuman woes, Gulfed in a mad, unmeaning sacrifice.

We, who survive that world-quake, cower and start, Searching our hidden souls with dark surmise: So thin, so frail—is reason? Patient art— Is it all a mockery, and love all lies? Who sees the lurking Hun in childhood's eyes? Is hell so near to every human heart?