Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TEN YEARS AFTER, by LUCIA TRENT


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TEN YEARS AFTER, by                    
First Line: Reverberating boom of shuffling, stamping feet!
Last Line: Make the will of the world your trumpet, the heart of the world your drum!
Alternate Author Name(s): Cheyney, Mrs. Ralph; Glass, Mrs. Ernest
Subject(s): Peace; Veterans Day; War; World War I; First World War


Reverberating boom of shuffling, stamping feet!
Now living ribbons roll their way down every major street
While snarling music rips the air. The town's a beating drum
Commanding men to war. With hearts aflame they come!

The devil feasts the men of wealth in every pious land—
The name of God on every tongue, His blood on every hand.
An armistice is heralded. Four million corpses rot.
The whole world staggers ponderously, the world itself was shot.

Death alone was victor, dust was all we won.
Self-determination? Ask the southern sun
What of Nicaraguans bleeding for their land.
What of our own veterans, begging, hat in hand?

Democratic safety? What of crimson Rome?
What of dark suppression in our very home?
Murder mows as red a swath, call it "war" or not.
The whole world staggers ponderously, the world itself was shot.

The old world staggers, but a young, triumphant world is born.
Before the Tower of Babel, sound a clear, resurgent horn
And prophesy the jubilant dawn when a true peace will come!
Make the will of the world your trumpet, the heart of the world your drum!





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