MY valiant fight! For I call it valiant, With my father's beliefs from old Virginia: Hating slavery, but no less war. I, full of spirit, audacity, courage Thrown into life here in Spoon River, With its dominant forces drawn from New England, Republicans, Calvinists, merchants, bankers, Hating me, yet fearing my arm. With wife and children heavy to carry -- Yet fruits of my very zest of life. Stealing odd pleasures that cost me prestige, And reaping evils I had not sown; Foe of the church with its charnel dankness, Friend of the human touch of the tavern; Tangled with fates all alien to me, Deserted by hands I called my own. Then just as I felt my giant strength Short of breath, behold my children Had wound their lives in stranger gardens -- And I stood alone, as I started alone! My valiant life! I died on my feet, Facing the silence -- facing the prospect That no one would know of the fight I made. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PARTING LOVERS by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING THE LAWYER'S WAYS by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR AT CASTLE BOTEREL by THOMAS HARDY MIDNIGHT ON THE GREAT WESTERN by THOMAS HARDY THE FLIGHT OF THE GEESE by CHARLES GEORGE DOUGLAS ROBERTS A SNOWFLAKE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |