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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BURY THEM, by HENRY HOWARD BROWNELL Poet's Biography First Line: Bury the dragon's teeth! Last Line: Fighting against great god. Subject(s): African Americans - Military; American Civil War; Fort Wagner, Battle Of (1863); Shaw, Robert Gould (1847-1863); Soldiers; United States - History | |||
BURY the Dragon's Teeth! Bury them deep and dark! The incisors swart and stark, The molars heavy and dark -- And the one white Fang underneath! Bury the Hope Forlorn! Never shudder to fling. With its fellows dusky and worn, The strong and beautiful thing (Pallid ivory and pearl!) Into the horrible Pit -- Hurry it in, and hurl All the rest over it! Trample them, clod by clod, Stamp them in dust amain! The cuspids, cruent and red, That the Monster, Freedom, shed On the sacred, strong Slave-Sod -- They never shall rise again! Never? -- what hideous growth Is sprouting through clod and clay? What Terror starts to the day? A crop of steel, on our oath! How the burnished stamens glance! -- Spike, and another, and blade, How they burst from the bloody shade, And spindle to spear and lance! There are tassels of blood-red Maize -- How the horrible Harvest grows! 'T is sabres that glint and daze -- 'T is bayonets all ablaze Uprearing in dreadful rows! For one that we buried there, A thousand are come to air! Ever, by door-stone and hearth, They break from the angry earth -- And out of the crimson sand, Where the cold white Fang was laid, Rises a terrible Shade, The Wraith of a sleepless Brand! And our hearts wax strange and chill, With an ominous shudder and thrill, Even here, on the strong Slave-Sod, Lest, haply, we be found (Ah, dread no brave hath drowned!) Fighting against Great God. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A VISIT TO GETTYSBURG by LUCILLE CLIFTON AFTER SPOTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE by DAVID FERRY ACROSS THE LONG DARK BORDER by EDWARD HIRSCH WALT WHITMAN IN THE CIVIL WAR HOSPITALS by DAVID IGNATOW THE DAY OF THE DEAD SOLDIERS; MARY 30, 1869 by EMMA LAZARUS MANHATTAN, 1609 by EDWIN MARKHAM THE DECISION (APRIL 14, 1861) by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE SPARROW HARK IN THE RAIN (ALEXANDER STEPHENS HEARS NEWS) by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SUMTER by HENRY HOWARD BROWNELL |
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