Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HARVEST OUT OF STONE, by VERNE BRIGHT



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HARVEST OUT OF STONE, by                    
First Line: They had a feud with stone: stone was a foe
Last Line: They lie with stone, triumphant, on their heart.


They had a feud with stone: stone was a foe
To test their manhood's strength; day after day
They waged a flinty warfare, wresting gray
And meager tilth from acres where the flow
Of ice had sown a grain of boulders; slow
Their tillage grew to fields, their fields to gay
And bannered harvests. But stone has a way
Of growing walls to thwart the lustiest blow.
Caught in the ruthless battle, stone by stone
They broke the years to brittle planet dust
With grim Antaean might; with dauntless thrust
They scourged the land till thinning flesh and bone
Sank to a slow defeat... Now, low, apart
They lie with stone, triumphant, on their heart.





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