Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, EVENING OF A TERRITORIAL FOURTH, by SELDEN LINCOLN WHITCOMB


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

EVENING OF A TERRITORIAL FOURTH, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The location gang of engineers
Last Line: Of the pioneers, of the south dakota to be.
Subject(s): Flags - United States; National Songs; Pioneers; South Dakota; American Flag; National Anthems


The location gang of engineers
Were puffing their pipes, relaxing,
Curled on the buffalo-beans, prickly pear and spear-grass,
Close round the smudge
That vexed a myriad mosquitoes.
They forgot
The transit and chain, the rod and the level,
The R. P's. and the bench-marks;
The tramp, tramp, tramping;
The heat, the fatigue and the thirst.

A duet on fiddle and flute
Was rivalled by accordeon solos.
Then Schneider, the rodman,
Sang in his thin, sweet tenor,
"Ich weiss nicht was soll es bedeuten,"
And "Kent du das Land."
Cheers rang out for the Red, White and Blue;
The chorus was strong in the "Star Spangled Banner."
Then for a time there was silence.

Far away, over somber expanses—
Twenty miles, thirty miles, farther?—
There arose glow and gleam, flashes,
From the fireworks of Huron.
They faded; the stars were supreme.
In the calm, brilliant night of the north,
The men rolled into blankets, under the canvas,
On the infinite prairie
Of the pioneers, of the South Dakota to be.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net