PROUD legions strode the valley of the days, Behind their march obscuring dust rolled high To melt wild deeds to legends and defy Our honest hope for truth and just dispraise. Lagoons and rainbows! Peer into the haze: Flash the charged corselet and the spear-bright eye. All queens are kind, all warriors glad to die -- But no dust softens the life before our gaze! The stampers break from quartz our age of gold! Ah, gallantry! Fists beat and women rend The dark with moans, while stokers, mad, half-fed, Put out the lights and chill men's bones with cold Before complacent villa-folk attend Their surly clamour for a louseless bed. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE EXISTING POOL by HAYDEN CARRUTH AUTUMN by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON GHOSTS OF THE OLD YEAR by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON CHAMBER MUSIC: 8 by JAMES JOYCE BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK by AMY LOWELL SURFACES AND MASKS; 1 by CLARENCE MAJOR THE BURIAL OF BOSTON CORBETT (ONE WARDEN TO ANOTHER) by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |