Upon this soil may no tree ever grow. In this land may no lips ever again Speak the word justice, now that all men know Those lips have long boasted and in vain. May never young men hither come to learn What cruel elders have no power to teach. May no lights burn here save witch-fires that burn Along some desolate and abandoned beach. May this dour land go back now whence it came -- To early granite, to implacable sea. May there descend on it the cleansing flame Of some remote supreme catastrophe Divorcing it forever with its shame From men who would be generous, wise and free. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HYMNS OF THE MARSHES: MARSH SONG - AT SUNSET by SIDNEY LANIER TO MR. GAY, WHO WROTE HIM A CONGRATULATORY LETTER ON FINISHING HOUSE by ALEXANDER POPE WASHINGTON'S MONUMENT, FEBRUARY, 1885 by WALT WHITMAN TRIOLET: THOSE VIOLETS BLUE by H. W. BANKS MEN OF WAKE by WILLIAM ROSE BENET LOUISBERG SQUARE by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE |