Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CHARGE OF THE ROUGH WRITERS, by HAROLD MACGRATH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CHARGE OF THE ROUGH WRITERS, by                    
First Line: Pens by the hundred
Last Line: Of parnassus, and smoke their dope!
Subject(s): Pens & Pencils; Writing & Writers


PENS by the hundred
Volleyed and thundered
And blundered,
Always reported
Facts that were distorted,
And wondered
Who had blundered!
Pens to the right of us,
Pens to the fright of us,
Pens to the blight of us,
Sputtered and scratched!
Pens there behind us,
Certain to find us,
Ever remind us
That we were matched!

Messengers ran about,
Waking the air with a shout,
Every line weighed with a doubt;
Wondering faces!
Davis and Creelman and Crane
Scoured o'er the Cuban plain,
Looking for gore and for gain,
Hot were the races!
Ah! how they lied to us!
Babbled and cried to us,
Showing each side to us,
Evils and graces!

Davis with "I" in his pocket,
Creelman with "I" in his locket,
Crane with "I" in his docket —
Ego was ever there!
Nothing e'er mattered
How they bespattered
Truth, how they battered
That face once so fair!
"Cash!" was the yell of them,
That was the spell of them,
That was the knell of them!
What did they care?

Oh, the Rough Writers,
Our fiction delighters!
The moral enlighters
In the big magazines!
Resume your old diction,
Return to true fiction,
Where there's no restriction,
And leave the poor soldier
His frail pork and beans!
His embalmed pork and beans!

Chorus

Davis: "I — I — I — I!"
Creelman: "I — I — I — I!"
Crane: "I — I — I — I!"

L'Envoi

Oh, ye reporters all unknown
Who wrote the war in the proper tone,
A nameless grave is your only hope,
While Davis-Creelman-Crane stand on the slope
Of Parnassus, and smoke their dope!





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