Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.
DepartureBaker Brownell
A
Pelted high-voiced goodbyes
Upon the ragged troop train.
Muddled sound of partings,
An accent here and there acute,
Popping, sudsy soap-sprays,
A girl’s bright dress, a frantic flag.
To her high moment—
A swelter of faint calls,
Upraised civilian arms, and then
Curdy floculations of vague color—
Drifted about the boarded station-house,
Upholding it like an ark,
Ever more in the distance.
Entrained in hasty coupled cars
For mobilization,
And left there, behind, Democracy,
Slack Democracy on the station boards;
Left America clattering into emotion
And shuffling heterogeneously home.
“Emotional—not spiritual,” one said,
Who, with Company L, saw
A new America somewhere,
Waiting, unknowing the future.