Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968). rn The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915.

Insouciance in Storm
(From “The Cry of Youth”)

Harry Kemp

(A young American poet who has wandered over the world as sailor, harvest hand and tramp; born 1883)

DEEP in an ore-boat’s hold

Where great-bulked boilers loom

And yawning mouths of fire

Irradiate the gloom,

I saw half-naked men

Made thralls to flame and steam,

Whose bodies, dripping sweat,

Shone with an oily gleam.

There, all the sullen night,

While waves boomed overhead

And smote the lurching ship,

The ravenous fires they fed;

They did not think it brave:

They even dared to joke!

I saw them light their pipes

And puff calm rings of smoke!

I saw a Passer sprawl

Over his load of coal—

At which a Fireman laughed

Until it shook his soul:

All this in a hollow shell

Whose half-submerged form

On Lake Superior tossed

’Mid rushing hills of storm!