Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

Battle

Hit

OUT of the sparkling sea

I drew my tingling body clear, and lay

On a low ledge the livelong summer day,

Basking, and watching lazily

White sails in Falmouth Bay.

My body seemed to burn

Salt in the sun that drenched it through and through,

Till every particle glowed clean and new

And slowly seemed to turn

To lucent amber in a world of blue …

I felt a sudden wrench—

A trickle of warm blood—

And found that I was sprawling in the mud

Among the dead men in the trench.