Her sonnet meditates on human degradation, and self-degradation, in the new Iron Age.

From “Epitaph on the Race of Man”

Here lies, and none to mourn him but the sea,
That falls incessant on the empty shore,
Most various Man, cut down to spring no more;
Before his prime, even in his infancy
Cut down, and all the clamor that was he,
Silenced; and all the riveted pride he wore,
A rusted iron column whose tall core
The rains have tunneled like an aspen tree.
Man, doughty Man, what powers have brought you low,
That heaven itself in arms could not persuade
To lay aside the lever and the spade
And be as dust among the dusts that blow?
Whence, whence the broadside? Whose the heavy blade?
Strive not to speak, poor scattered mouth; I know.

From Wine from These Grapes (1934)