Upon this soil may no tree ever grow. In this land may no lips ever again Speak the word justice, now that all men know Those lips have long boasted and in vain. May never young men hither come to learn What cruel elders have no power to teach. May no lights burn here save witch-fires that burn Along some desolate and abandoned beach. May this dour land go back now whence it came -- To early granite, to implacable sea. May there descend on it the cleansing flame Of some remote supreme catastrophe Divorcing it forever with its shame From men who would be generous, wise and free. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LINES WRITTEN IN THE ALBUM AT ELBINGERODE, IN HARTZ FOREST by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE THE CHILD IN THE GARDEN by HENRY VAN DYKE TO ONE BEREFT by ETHEL KNAPP BEHRMAN SURPRISES by AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR GIFTS by MAXWELL STRUTHERS BURT TO MISS BRUNTON WITH HIS TRANSLATION OF WRANGHAM'S LATIN by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE |