Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FIGURING IT ALL UP, by ANONYMOUS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FIGURING IT ALL UP, by                    
First Line: The captain strode the quarter deck
Last Line: The old arithmetic?
Subject(s): Battleships;disasters;sea;shipwrecks;war;waves; Ocean


THE Captain strode the quarter deck;
The crews were at the guns;
The powder flames leaped fiercely out,
Like as the lightning runs.
Afar the fortress rose, all grim,
And bellowed in reply,
Till smoke and fire and thunder sound
Shook both the sea and sky.
And the Captain took
His little book,
And figured away, while his fingers shook:
"2 into 10 goes 16 times,
And the square of 12 is 4;
79 is the cube of 6,
And my deck is wet with gore.
53 is the G. C. D.,
And 7 plus 2 is 5 —
And my ship is shot to a battered hulk,
And I haven't a man alive!"

The other Captain, in the fort,
Stood sadly on parade;
The gatlings, siege, and other guns
A fearsome racket made.
They boomed across the troubled waves,
Against the swooping ships,
And as their echoes thrilled the air
The Captain bit his lips.
And he also took
His little book,
And figured it out with a worried look:
"6 per cent of a dozen men,
And the sine of 18 more,
All bisected by 25,
And the arc of 34;
3 plus 8, to the decimal,
And the tare and tret," he said,
"Combined with the subdivided sum,
Shows all my men are dead."

Thus each side lost and each side won,
And each side fought the fray,
And now they're figuring upon
The powder bills to pay.
Grim war is awful, at its best,
But who will lose or lick
If he relies entirely on
The old arithmetic?





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