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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TORSO, by IWAN GOLL Poet's Biography
First Line: Europe, you shuddering torso!
Last Line: Europe, you crumbling torso, you rump of the world!
Alternate Author Name(s): Goll, Yvan
Subject(s): Europe; World War I; First World War
First Line: Europe, you shuddering torso!
Last Line: Europe, you crumbling torso, you rump of the world!
Alternate Author Name(s): Goll, Yvan
Subject(s): Europe; World War I; First World War
Europe, you shuddering torso!
You stand on the plinth of wholesale graves, deep in the rubbish of centuries of
battles.
Nothing but a black coil, a raw heaving of the earth toward the sky.
You towering accusation of humankind: torso, you deathless monument of murder,
The coming conquerors already dance about you, you idol of iron wars.
A yellow sea will rise to swallow you. The white negroes of America will slink
round you.
All your freedoms will fly off like a beautiful dream.
Your martyrs will kiss the knees of their tyrants.
On the Nevsky Prospekt there will be an eternal burial.
In the emperors' palaces a harsh prison will be reared.
Europe, you crumbling torso, you rump of the world!
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