Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO JANE ADDAMS AT THE HAGUE: 1. TOLSTOI IS PLOWING YET by NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY

Poet Analysis

First Line: TOLSTOI IS PLOWING YET. WHEN THE SMOKE CLOUDS BREAK
Last Line: FORWARD, ACROSS THE FIELD, HIS HORSES GO.
Subject(s): TOLSTOY, LEO (1828-1910); WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;
Tolstoi is plowing yet. When the smoke-clouds break,
High in the sky shines a field as wide as the world.
There he toils for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake.

Ah, he is taller than clouds of the little earth.
Only the congress of planets is over him,
And the arching path where new sweet stars have birth.

Wearing his peasant dress, his head bent low,
Tolstoi, that angel of Peace, is plowing yet;
Forward, across the field, his horses go.





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