Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE COAL STRIKE, by HENRY CHAPPELL First Line: Red are the rails with rust to-day Last Line: Who went to heavenstarved. Subject(s): Cemeteries; Death - Children; Heaven; Hunger; Poverty; Graveyards; Death - Babies; Paradise | ||||||||
RED are the rails with rust to-day, Red is each standing wheel; No cheerful clank from the gleaming crank, Or the kiss of steel on steel. No whistle shrill awakes the hill To fling an echo back, Nor piercing beam of a signal's gleam To give, or bar the track. Red are the parent's hearts to-day As they watch the spectre creep, Gaunt skin and bone, while the children moan In their hungry, troubled sleep. No hope is born with the breaking morn, No workno fireno food; Another day must be starved away And wept in tears of blood. White is a little childish form, White in the arms of Death; And O, so thin, that thro' the skin The sharp bones show beneath. A tiny mound in the churchyard ground, Apart from the marbles carved; But never a scroll for the little soul, Who went to Heavenstarved. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE END OF LIFE by PHILIP JAMES BAILEY SEVEN TWILIGHTS: 6 by CONRAD AIKEN THE BOOK OF THE DEAD MAN (#19): 2. MORE ABOUT THE DEAD MAN AND WINTER by MARVIN BELL THE WORLDS IN THIS WORLD by LAURE-ANNE BOSSELAAR A SKELETON FOR MR. PAUL IN PARADISE; AFTER ALLAN GUISINGER by NORMAN DUBIE BEAUTY & RESTRAINT by DANIEL HALPERN HOW IT WILL HAPPEN, WHEN by DORIANNE LAUX IF THIS IS PARADISE by DORIANNE LAUX |
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