Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, OLD TIMERS, by CARL SANDBURG


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

OLD TIMERS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I am an ancient reluctant conscript
Last Line: I am an ancient reluctant conscript.
Subject(s): Veterans


I AM an ancient reluctant conscript.

On the soup wagons of Xerxes I was a cleaner of pans.

On the march of Miltiades' phalanx I had a haft and head;
I had a bristling gleaming spear-handle.

Red-headed Caesar picked me for a teamster.
He said, "Go to work, you Tuscan bastard,
Rome calls for a man who can drive horses."

The units of conquest led by Charles the Twelfth,
The whirling whimsical Napoleonic columns:
They saw me one of the horseshoers.

I trimmed the feet of a white horse Bonaparte swept the night stars
with.

Lincoln said, "Get into the game; your nation takes you."
And I drove a wagon and team and I had my arm shot off
At Spottsylvania Court House.

I am an ancient reluctant conscript.






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