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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LAMENT FOR PIONEERS by VERNE BRIGHT

First Line: OUT OF THE EAST THEY CAME, THE STRONG, WISE MEN
Last Line: OF DREAM AND SONG, TILLED NOW OF THE TILLER, DEATH!
Subject(s): PIONEERS;
Out of the east they came, the strong, wise men,
Marking the trail for the followers, frost of wind
White on their wind-flown beards; the prairies, thinned
By drouth, they spurned with feet made proud again
To step to the drums of danger. Young in heart
They climbed the granite ridges, leaped the rivers,
Fought the snow in the passes; generous givers
Of life to the lives of men.
Of joy, a part,
And of love, a part, and part, too, of all song,
They came and bred in the land and built their houses
Of log and stone, tilled the valleys, sowed the long
Denuded slopes, reaped harvests ... now carouses
The wind in their empty fields, lost to the breath
Of dream and song, tilled now of the tiller, death!



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