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! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE GOODLY SONG by PAUL VERLAINE THE SPIDER AND THE FLY by MARY HOWITT THE BIGLOW PAPERS: 6. THE PIOUS EDITOR'S CREED by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL TO A SQUIRREL AT KYLE-NA-NO by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS SONNET: MAN VERSUS ASCETIC. 4 by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON |