<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Metal Checks</h1><p class="inline-note" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">(The scene is a bare room, with two shaded windows at the back, and a fireplace between them with a fire burning low. The room is furnished scantily with a few plain chairs, and a rough wooden table on which are piled a great many small wooden trays. The Counter, who is Death, sits at the table. He wears a loose gray robe, and his face is partly concealed by a gray veil. He does not look at The Bearer, but works mechanically and speaks in a monotonous tone. The Bearer is the World, that bears the burden of War. He wears a soiled robe of brown and green and he carries on his back a gunny-bag with the little metal disks that have been used for the identification of the slain common soldiers.)</p><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead"><span class="smallcaps">The Bearer</span></p><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Here</span> is a sack, a gunny sack,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">A heavy sack I bring.</p><p class="line">Here is toll of many a soul --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But not the soul of a king.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">This is the toll of common men,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Who lived in the common way;</p><p class="line">Lived upon bread and wine and love,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">In the light of the common day.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">This is the toll of working men,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Blood and brawn and brain.</p><p class="line">Who shall render us again</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The worth of all the slain?</p></div><p class="inline-note" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">(As the Counter speaks, the Bearer pours out the disks on the table. The Bearer obeys the Counter.)</p><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead"><span class="smallcaps">The Counter</span></p><p class="line">Pour them out on the table here.</p><p class="line">C l i c k e t y - c l i c k e t y - c l a c k !</p><p class="line">For every button a man went out,</p><p class="line">And who shall call him back?</p><p class="line">C l i c k e t y - c l i c k e t y - c l a c k !</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">One -- two -- three -- four --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Every disk a soul!</p><p class="line">Three score -- four score --</p><p class="line">So many boys went out to war.</p><p class="line">Pick up that one that fell on the floor --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Didn't you see it roll?</p><p class="line">That was a man a month ago.</p><p class="line">This was a man. Row upon row --</p><p class="line">Pile them in tens and count them so.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead"><span class="smallcaps">The Bearer</span></p><p class="line">I have an empty sack.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">It is not large. Would you have said</p><p class="line">That I could carry on my back</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">So great an army -- and all dead?</p></div><p class="inline-note" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">(As the Counter speaks the Bearer lays the sack over his arm and helps count.)</p><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead"><span class="smallcaps">The Counter</span></p><p class="line">Put a hundred in each tray --</p><p class="line">We can tally them best that way.</p><p class="line">Careful -- do you understand</p><p class="line">You have ten men in your hand?</p><p class="line">There's another fallen -- there --</p><p class="line">Under that chair.</p></div><p class="inline-note" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">(The Bearer finds it and restores it.)</p><div class="stanza"><p class="line">That was a man a month ago;</p><p class="line">He could see and feel and know.</p><p class="line">Then, into his throat there sped</p><p class="line">A bit of lead.</p><p class="line">Blood was salt in his mouth; he fell</p><p class="line">And lay amid the battle wreck.</p><p class="line">Nothing was left but this metal check --</p><p class="line">And a wife and child, perhaps.</p></div><p class="inline-note" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">(The Bearer finds the bag on his arm troublesome. He holds it up, inspecting it.)</p><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead"><span class="smallcaps">The Bearer</span></p><p class="line">What can one do with a thing like this?</p><p class="line">Neither of life nor death it is!</p><p class="line">For the dead serve not, though it served the dead.</p><p class="line">The wounds it carried were wide and red,</p><p class="line">Yet they stained it not. Can a man put food,</p><p class="line">Potatoes or wheat, or even wood</p><p class="line">That is kind and burns with a flame to warm</p><p class="line">Living men who are comforted --</p><p class="line">In a thing that has served so many dead?</p><p class="line">There is no thrift in a graveyard dress,</p><p class="line">It's been shroud for too many men.</p><p class="line">I'll burn it and let the dead bless.</p></div><p class="inline-note" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">(He crosses himself and throws it into the fire. He watches it burn. The Counter continues to pile up the metal checks, and drop them by hundreds into the trays, which he piles one upon another. The Bearer turns from the fire and speaks more slowly than he has before. He indicates the metal checks.</p><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Would not the blood of these make a great sea</p><p class="line">For men to sail their ships on? It may be</p><p class="line">No fish would swim in it, and the foul smell</p><p class="line">Would make the sailors sick. Perhaps in Hell</p><p class="line">There's some such lake for men who rush to war</p><p class="line">Prating of glory, and upon the shore</p><p class="line">Will stand the wives and children and old men</p><p class="line">Bereft, to drive them back again</p><p class="line">When they seek haven. Some such thing</p><p class="line">I thought the while I bore it on my back</p><p class="line">And heard the metal pieces clattering.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead"><span class="smallcaps">The Counter</span></p><p class="line">Four score -- five score --</p><p class="line">These and many more.</p><p class="line">Forward -- march! -- into the tray!</p><p class="line">No bugles blow to-day,</p><p class="line">No captains lead the way;</p><p class="line">But mothers and wives,</p><p class="line">Fathers, sisters, little sons,</p><p class="line">Count the cost</p><p class="line">Of the lost;</p><p class="line">And we count the unlived lives,</p><p class="line">The forever unborn ones</p><p class="line">Who might have been your sons.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead"><span class="smallcaps">The Bearer</span></p><p class="line">Could not the hands of these rebuild</p><p class="line">That which has been destroyed?</p><p class="line">Oh, the poor hands! that once were strong and filled</p><p class="line">With implements of labor whereby they</p><p class="line">Served home and country through the peaceful day.</p><p class="line">When those who made the war stand face to face</p><p class="line">With these slain soldiers in that unknown place</p><p class="line">Whither the dead go, what will be the word</p><p class="line">By dead lips spoken and by dead ears heard?</p><p class="line">Will souls say King or Kaiser? Will souls prate</p><p class="line">Of earthly glory in that new estate?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead"><span class="smallcaps">The Counter</span></p><p class="line">One hundred thousand --</p><p class="line">One hundred and fifty thousand --</p><p class="line">Two hundred --</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead"><span class="smallcaps">The Bearer</span></p><p class="line">Can this check plough?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Can it sow? can it reap?</p><p class="line">Can we arouse it?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Is it asleep?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Can it hear when a child cries? --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Comfort a wife?</p><p class="line">This little metal disk</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Stands for a life.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Can this check build,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Laying stone upon stone?</p><p class="line">Once it was warm flesh</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Folded on bone.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Sinew and muscle firm,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Look at it -- can</p><p class="line">This little metal check</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Stand for a man?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead"><span class="smallcaps">The Counter</span></p><p class="line">One -- two -- three -- four --</p></div><p class="byline">-- Louise Driscoll.</p></body></html> · Great War