DEAD SHIPS

We are not sudden haters; but by dint

Of many horrors all our hearts are quick.

We are not ready writers, with the trick

Of rhyming just to see our words in print.

Nor are we fast forgetters: there remain

Bitter and shameful in our memory

Old murders that made horrible the sea

And tinged clean water with a red, red stain.

Titanic: she went down for love of speed;

The Eastland — curse her!— just for dirty greed;

But there are ships whose names are yet more rank.

The years have passed, but still our hearts are sick

To think of the cool cruelty that sank

The Lusitania and the Arabic.