Safe Luxury

i need help with a poem "Iron" by Carl Sanbdburg?

GUNS, Long, steel guns, Pointed from the war ships In the name of the war god. Straight, shining, polished guns, ***Clambered over with jackies in white blouses, Glory of tan faces, tousled hair, white teeth, Laughing lithe jackies in white blouses, Sitting on the guns singing war songs, war chanties.*** Shovels, Broad, iron shovels, Scooping out oblong vaults, Loosening turf and leveling sod. I ask you To witness-- The shovel is brother to the gun. i need help with the few lines between the asterisks. this is a WWI poem btw.

Public Comments

1. basically it is saying the people manning the guns are not even thinking about all the people they are killing with these guns- they laugh and sing and do not think of the reality of what they are doing- thats the best I can say it.
2. Jackies are sailors. From the sound of things, young and inexperienced sailors, their uniforms as yet undirtied by the war they are about to fight. They are eager, ready to do the job the recruiters wanted them for, killing the enemy. The tools they will use are the guns on the decks of their ships. The tool the gravediggers use is the shovel.