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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


GOTTERDAMMERUNG by ERNEST HARTSOCK

First Line: A GOD IS DYING, O BEWILDERED ONES
Last Line: WHERE PEACE, THE PHOENIX, LIFTS HIS GOLDEN WINGS!
Subject(s): PEACE; WAR;

A god is dying, O bewildered ones,
A greybeard god, whose zealous warriors
Have cowed the dismal world with bellowing guns
Until the sky like some vast conch-shell roars.
A god is perishing from glut of praise
From hypocrites whose tawny talons gleam
With secret gold which Judas-bright betrays
Sad barter of their high birthright of dream.

Let trumpets burn with turbulence of morn!
While Jericho cracks down its house of glass.
A god is dying and a man is born:
Let Mars and all his mangled mourners pass.
Here raise the sepulcher of creeds and kings
Where peace, the Phoenix, lifts his golden wings!



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