Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IN MYSTERY VEILED, by MAMIE OZBURN ODUM


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IN MYSTERY VEILED, by                    
First Line: Must our halls of heaven fling wide
Last Line: To lose our birthright and our heritage.
Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews; Mystery; Torture; Shoah; Judaism


Must our halls of heaven fling wide her doorways
To man-made birds that soar uncharted streets,
Must we watch the silence break in frenzied stupor
By maneuverings of foreign fleets?
Must our sturdy plowmen leave his harrow,
And office men their dens of polished wood,
And shrink from roaring planes with death deep-laden
In mystery veiled -- no motive understood?
Must mothers sacrifice their unborn babies,
And schools their young, a living holocaust,
Must greed go blindly on while dark clouds gather
And into foreign ports our wealth exhaust?
Must the green of earth be sered and blighted
By blinding smoke and tearing, poisoned gas,
The sweet of living air be knit with piercing torture
While boasting man rail on as "sounding brass"?
Ah, must this sleeping land be goaded to action
By shrieking death and ghoulish plunderage;
Or be content with unprepared submission
To lose our birthright and our heritage.





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