Explore "Schroeder the Fisherman" by Edgar Lee Masters on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I sat on the bank above Bernadotte / And dropped crumbs in the water, / Just to see the minnows bump each other, / Until the strongest got the prize.
Or I went to my little pasture, / Where the peaceful swine were asleep in the wallow, / Or nosing each other lovingly, / And emptied a basket of yellow corn, / And watched them push and squeal and bite, / And trample each other to get the corn.
And I saw how Christian Dallman's farm, / Of more than three thousand acres, / Swallowed the patch of Felix Schmidt, / As a bass will swallow a minnow.
And I say if there's anything in man --
Spirit, or conscience, or breath of God / That makes him different from fishes or hogs, / I'd like to see it work!