Harriet Monroe: Over me wash the seas of war

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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts

American writers on peace and against war

Women writers on peace and war

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Harriet Monroe
On the Porch

As I lie roofed in, screened in,
From the pattering rain,
The summer rain –
As I lie
Snug and dry,
And hear the birds complain:

Oh, billow on billow,
Oh, roar on roar,
Over me wash
The seas of war.
Over me – down – down –
Lunges and plunges
The huge gun with its one blind eye,
The armored train,
And, swooping out of the sky,
The aeroplane.

Down – down –
The army proudly swinging
Under gay flags,
The glorious dead heaped up like rags,
A church with bronze bells ringing,
A city all towers,
Gardens of lovers and flowers,
The round world swinging
In the light of the sun:
All broken, undone,
All down – under
Black surges of thunder…

Oh, billow on billow
Oh, roar on roar,
Over me wash
The seas of war…

As I lie roofed in, screened in,
From the pattering rain,
The summer rain –
As I lie
Snug and dry,
And hear the birds complain.