DIRGE FOR THE SQUALUS
We did not raise a submarine
From the ocean’s fathomed bed,
But twenty-six brave sailor lads
And all of them were dead.
We left them not beneath the sea;
We brought them sadly home,
To dedicate anew to Death,
Who nevermore shall roam.
Then, trumpeter, be firm your lip,
What though the tears may fall,
For muffled drums in velvet beat
Beneath your trumpet’s call.
And there are hearts in other lads
That swell with sorrow, too.
It need not matter that those hearts
Are not in navy blue.
And they who have escaped that tomb
Beneath the restless wave,
How deeply reverent they hold
The gift the dead men gave.
For twenty-six on them bestowed
The utmost they could give,
When twenty-six accepted death
That thirty-three might live.
The passage doorway dogged and tight,
On either side two groups of men.
In one compartment, mad with fright,
The thirty-three who’ll live again.
And on the other, maddened, too,
The water rising swiftly, high,
The twenty-six who looked and knew
They were the ones who had to die.
Then let some fitting tribute stand
When we from here are fled,
The living consecrated
By the consecrated dead!
ECHO CANYON
We ride to Echo Canyon,
He rides with me tonight,
No moon above to guide us,
The stars alone are bright.
The wind is in the sagebrush;
Somewhere a coyote calls;
The studded sky is briefly lit
As a flaming starlet falls.
We draw the rein together,
He trembles as I pass
To turn the horses free to graze
In the wild September grass.