Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO MILITARY PROGRESS by MARIANNE MOORE

Poet Analysis

First Line: YOU USE YOUR MIND
Last Line: RED.
Subject(s): WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;
YOU use your mind
Like a millstone to grind
Chaff.
You polish it
And with your warped wit
Laugh

At your torso,
Prostrate where the crow
Falls
On such faint hearts
As its god imparts,
Calls

And claps its wings
Till the tumult brings
More
Black minute-men
To revive again,
War

At little cost.
They cry for the lost
Head
And seek their prize
Till the evening sky's
Red.



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