On all the plains and hills deep shadows lie, The sun shines faintly through a mask of gray, Then sullenly, he dims his last faint ray As clouds of dust obscure the troubled sky. Before the hurtling wind the bleached weeds fly Across vast, barren plains, where once there lay A green and fragrant carpet, but today We see the plowed sod writhe, hear the gale's cry! Lost Red Man, you were wiser far than we, The Pale-face breed who ploughed and sowed the plains On which the deer and buffalo once fed. Where once the shielding grass swayed, tired eyes see The gashed fields bleeding dust, and healing rains Cannot replace the grass -- now so long dead. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON THE TOMBS IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY by FRANCIS BEAUMONT THE LAND OF DREAMS by WILLIAM BLAKE THE OLD WOMAN by JOSEPH CAMPBELL VENICE; SONNET by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE MAN-OF-WAR HAWK by HERMAN MELVILLE THE RUBAIYAT, 1879 EDITION: 68 by OMAR KHAYYAM |