|
|
|
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A NATION SPEAKS, by MARION L. ULMER
First Line: You claimed my youth. Into your hands I gave them
Last Line: "to live the ancient prayer ""they kingdom come""."
Subject(s): Hate; Love; Youth
First Line: You claimed my youth. Into your hands I gave them
Last Line: "to live the ancient prayer ""they kingdom come""."
Subject(s): Hate; Love; Youth
You claimed my youth. Into your hands I gave them
Clear-eyed and clean, high-hearted, valiant, strong,
Before your awful altars humbly kneeling
They vowed their loyalty to right a wrong.
O War! I hate you for your grim pretending.
Mask you no more as glory, heaven-sent.
Too long the serried ranks have marched, unending,
To kill and die, as to a sacrament.
Your robes strip off! No goddess there revealing.
Before you cheers of man-swayed mobs abate.
The empty panoply now useless lying
Reveals beneath your blood-dyed garments -- Hate.
O God of Love! Too long earth's shackled children
With fettered minds and fear-sealed lips were dumb.
We pledge us now in truth and understanding
To live the ancient prayer "They Kingdom Come".
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
Other Poems of Interest...
BETWEEN THE WARS by ROBERT HASS
THE GOLDEN SHOVEL by TERRANCE HAYES
ALONG WITH YOUTH by ERNEST HEMINGWAY
THE BLACK RIVIERA by MARK JARMAN