'Thus far 80,000 horses have been shipped from the United States to the European belligerents.' <br />WHAT was our share in the sinning, <br />That we must share the doom? <br />Sweet was our life's beginning <br />In the spicy meadow-bloom, <br />With children's hands to pet us <br />And kindly tones to call. <br />To-day the red spurs fret us <br />Against the bayonet wall. <br />What had we done, our masters, <br />That you sold us into hell? <br />Our terrors and disasters <br />Have filled your pockets well. <br />You feast on our starvation; <br />Your laughter is our groan. <br />Have horses then no nation, <br />No country of their own? <br />What are we, we your horses, <br />So loyal where we serve, <br />Fashioned of noble forces <br />All sensitive with nerve? <br />Torn, agonized, we wallow <br />On the blood-bemired sod; <br />And still the shiploads follow. <br />Have horses then no God?<br /><br />Katharine Lee Bates<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-horses-4/
