WE have sent him seeds of the melon's core, And nailed a warning upon his door; By the Ku Klux laws we can do no more. Down in the hollow, mid crib and stack, The roof of his low-porched house looms black, Not a line of light at the doorsill's crack. Yet arm and mount! and mask and ride! The hounds sense though the fox may hide! And for a word too much men oft have died. The clouds blow heavy towards the moon. The edge of the storm will reach it soon. The killdee cries and the lonesome loon. The clouds shall flush with a wilder glare Than the lightning makes with its angled flare, When the Ku Klux verdict is given there. In the pause of the thunder rolling low, A rifle's answer -- who shall know From the wind's fierce hurl and the rain's black blow? Only the signature written grim At the end of the message brought to him, -- A hempen rope and a twisted limb. So arm and mount! and mask and ride! the hounds can sense though the fox may hide! And for a word too much men oft have died. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FRINGED GENTIANS by AMY LOWELL SONG OF THE SILENT LAND by JOHANN GAUDENZ VON SALIS-SEEWIS SEVEN AGES OF MAN, FR. AS YOU LIKE IT by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE DAFFODILS by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Γενεθλιακον by JOSEPH BEAUMONT A BALLAD OF THE HEATHER by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT HAGAR by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON ODE TO A LADY WHOSE LOVER WAS KILLED BY A BALL by GEORGE GORDON BYRON |