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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BALLAD OF HECTOR IN HADES, by EDWIN MUIR Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Yes, this is where I stood that day Last Line: A corpse with streaming hair. Subject(s): Trojan War; War | |||
Yes, this is where I stood that day, Besides this sunny mound. The walls of Troy are far away, And outward comes no sound. I wait. On all the empty plain A burnished stillness lies, Save for the chariot's tinkling hum, And a few distant cries. His helmet glitters near. The world Slowly turns around, With some new sleight compels my feet From the fighting ground. I run. If I turned back again The earth must turn with me, The mountains planted on the plain, The sky clamped to the sea. The grasses puff a little dust Where my footsteps fall. I cast a shadow as I pass The little wayside wall. The strip of grass on either hand Sparkles in the light; I only see that little space To the left and to the right, And in that space our shadows run, His shadow there and mine, The little flowers, the tiny mounds, The grasses frail and fine. But narrower still and narrower! My course is shrunk and small, Yet vast as in a deadly dream, And faint the Trojan wall. The sun in the towering sky Turns like a spinning ball. The sky with all its clustered eyes Grows still with watching me, The flowers, the mounds, the flaunting weeds Wheel slowly round to see. Two shadows racing on the grass, Silent and so near, Until his shadow falls on mine. And I am rid of fear. The race is ended. Far away I hang and do not care, While round bright Troy Achilles whirls A corpse with streaming hair. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...I AM YOUR WAITER TONIGHT AND MY NAME IS DIMITRI by ROBERT HASS MITRAILLIATRICE by ERNEST HEMINGWAY RIPARTO D'ASSALTO by ERNEST HEMINGWAY WAR VOYEURS by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA THE DREAM OF WAKING by RANDALL JARRELL THE SURVIVOR AMONG GRAVES by RANDALL JARRELL |
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