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...
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.
-- Harriet Monroe.
