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, @2"Ich weiss nicht was soll es bedeuten,"@1 And @2"Kent du das Land."@1 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...A SONG OF COURAGE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON SOUVENIR by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON EPITAPH IN A CHURCH-YARD IN CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA by AMY LOWELL A MAN CHILD IS BORN (1809) by EDGAR LEE MASTERS BLACK EAGLE RETURNS TO ST. JOE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE SPARROW HARK IN THE RAIN (ALEXANDER STEPHENS HEARS NEWS) by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |