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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ALL THE DEAD SOLDIERS, by THOMAS MCGRATH Poet's Biography First Line: In the chill rains of the early winter I hear something Last Line: Where lie the aging women: who were so lovely: once Subject(s): Soldiers; War | |||
In the chill rains of the early winter I hear something -- A puling anger, a cold wind stiffened by flying bone -- Out of the north . . . and remember, then, what's up there: That ghost-bank: home: Amchitka: boot hill. . . . They must be very tired, those ghosts; no flesh sustains them And the bones rust in the rain. Reluctant to go into the earth The skulls gleam: wet; the dog-tag forgets the name; The statistics (wherein they were young) like their crosses, are weathering out. They must be very tired. But I see them riding home, Nightly: crying weak lust and rage: to stand in the dark, Forlorn in known rooms, unheard near familiar beds: Where lie the aging women: who were so lovely: once. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...I AM YOUR WAITER TONIGHT AND MY NAME IS DIMITRI by ROBERT HASS MITRAILLIATRICE by ERNEST HEMINGWAY RIPARTO D'ASSALTO by ERNEST HEMINGWAY WAR VOYEURS by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA THE DREAM OF WAKING by RANDALL JARRELL THE SURVIVOR AMONG GRAVES by RANDALL JARRELL SO MANY BLOOD-LAKES by ROBINSON JEFFERS ODE FOR THE AMERICAN DEAD IN ASIA by THOMAS MCGRATH |
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