Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GOTTERDAMMERUNG, by ERNEST HARTSOCK


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GOTTERDAMMERUNG, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A god is dying, o bewildered ones
Last Line: Where peace, the phoenix, lifts his golden wings!
Subject(s): Peace; War


A god is dying, O bewildered ones,
A greybeard god, whose zealous warriors
Have cowed the dismal world with bellowing guns
Until the sky like some vast conch-shell roars.
A god is perishing from glut of praise
From hypocrites whose tawny talons gleam
With secret gold which Judas-bright betrays
Sad barter of their high birthright of dream.

Let trumpets burn with turbulence of morn!
While Jericho cracks down its house of glass.
A god is dying and a man is born:
Let Mars and all his mangled mourners pass.
Here raise the sepulcher of creeds and kings
Where peace, the Phoenix, lifts his golden wings!





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