So! -- breakers of bronchos! -- with miles of barbed wire fence You seek to tame the spirit of these hills; You hope, with your lariat of shimmering wire, To break its heart, and with your iron heel, Hot from the desert, to sear upon its hip Your molten brand -- as wranglers at a round-up, With bit and spur and lasso, strive to curb And brand an outlaw fresh from winter range. O breakers of bronchos -- listen! Can't you hear The north wind sniggering at you? The coyote Upon the mesa, jeering? The waterfall Chuckling among the rocks? The croaking magpie, The hooting owl, the shrike, the curlew? Look! -- The alkali lilies, the sage, the mustard weeds, Bending with mirth, wag their heads and laugh At you! Even the pinto cayuse kicks His heels against the mountain sky, and snorts! O breakers of bronchos, we fling you on the wind This handful of dust, this bitter alkali! -- As well attempt to rope the bucking stars, To burn your bars upon the flank of the moon! When will you whirl your lasso at the sun? Or bridle it? Or straddle the lightning flash? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE POET; SONNET by AMY LOWELL THE VOLUNTEER by HERBERT HENRY ASQUITH SOME VERSES UPON THE BURNING OF OUR HOUSE JULY 10, 1666 by ANNE BRADSTREET HOW IT STRIKES A CONTEMPORARY by ROBERT BROWNING A COMPARISON [ADDRESSED] TO A YOUNG LADY by WILLIAM COWPER EPITAPH ON THE MONUMENT OF SIR WILLIAM DYER by KATHERINE DYER ARE THE CHILDREN AT HOME? by MARGARET ELIZABETH MUNSON SANGSTER |