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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


JAPAN - ABOUT 1877 by JACK MERTEN

First Line: BEWILDERED BLUE DRAGON-FLIES
Last Line: "HAIL, COLUMBIA!"
Subject(s): INVENTIONS AND INVENTORS; MUSIC & MUSICIANS; PRINTING AND PRINTERS; TELEGRAPH; TELEGRAMS;

(@3After the United States had introduced the telegraph.@1)

BEWILDERED blue dragon-flies,
Needle-bodied and round-headed,
Swarm about the new-stretched telegraph wires
And balance there, heads down, tails up, in amazement;
Like notes they perch upon a music staft
Printed against the white dawn's vellum page,
As you, musician, read the song they score:
"Hail, Columbia!"



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