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Poetry Foundation

"Tin Fish"

By Rudyard Kipling
1914-18
(Sea Warfare)
The ships destroy us above
    And ensnare us beneath.
We arise, we lie down, and we move
    In the belly of Death.

The ships have a thousand eyes
    To mark where we come . . .
But the mirth of a seaport dies
    When our blow gets home.

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