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"Macbeth and the Witches," Albert Pinkham Ryder, oil on canvas, mid-1890s, the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. |
This is no time
to talk of the surface
switch off the monitor
We have left undone
those things
which we ought to have done
The powerless
pull small belongings
on anything with wheels
We have done
those things
we ought not to have done
There is no desperation
tanks turn the corner
wounded spill
We have too much
followed the devices
of our hearts
Down in the air raid shelter
money dirty ankle deep
has no meaning
War more real than peace
people have little to say
there are no words.
—From the radio broadcasts of Edward R. Murrow as American troops
moved through Germany in the spring of 1943, with quotes from
The Book of Common Prayer, issued to American servicemen at the time.
