Classic and Contemporary Poetry
OKLAHOMA, by STELLA B. REDDING First Line: Oklahoma, youngest state of the west Last Line: Oklahoma. Subject(s): Greed; Oklahoma; Petroleum; Avarice; Cupidity; Oil | ||||||||
Oklahoma, youngest state of the West, Arrogant you are, Billowed on beautiful time-worn ridges And valleys of fertile green. You proudly and boastfully laud your own quick growth into wealth. You show your shining milk teeth to the world, You bite, You kill, while guarding your claims. Your oil fields, Of a million tanks, Of unlimited latticed rigging lifted Vauntingly to the sky, Proclaim your source of wealth. Without a "Thank you, God," You pump, pump, pump, And pour out a stream of liquid dollars From God's storehouse, unwittingly given by indifferent potentates and flung At the Indian's feet! Oklahoma! You claim an aristocracy of wealth! You flaunt it red before uncultured eyes. How dare you! 'Tis maddeningly multiplied. The spirit of Christ goes grievingly among your powerful steel machinery of pipes and bars That knows no day or hour of rest. He hears your creed, That money talks, Dollars first and then perhaps the soul, That nothing counts against the clink of the silver wheels. Ah! money-mad you are! But, some day Your uncovered streams Will cease. What then? Oklahoma. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE HANDKERCHIEFS OF KHAIBAR KHAN by JOHN UPDIKE THE TRANSFORMATION OF A TEXAS GIRL by JAMES BARTON ADAMS DESERTED DERRICK by MARY ELIZABETH BRANTLEY PICTURES OF THE SOUTHWEST: OIL by ELIZABETH KING COWGILL THE LILY, FR. SONGS OF EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE ON THE BUILDING OF SPRINGFIELD by NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY THE PLUMPUPPETS by CHRISTOPHER DARLINGTON MORLEY THE SOBBING OF THE BELLS (MIDNIGHT, SEPT. 19-20, 1881) by WALT WHITMAN THE BROKEN WATER WHEEL by GHALIB IBN RIBAH AL-HAJJAM HAPPY CHRISTMASTIDE by GERTRUDE ELOISE BEALER |
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