Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FIGHT by CARL SANDBURG

Poet Analysis

First Line: RED DRIPS FROM MY CHIN WHERE I HAVE BEEN EATING
Last Line: THE CHILD CRIES FOR A SUCK MOTHER AND I CRY FOR WAR.
Subject(s): WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;
RED drips from my chin where I have been eating.
Not all the blood, nowhere near all, is wiped off my mouth.

Clots of red mess my hair
And the tiger, the buffalo, know how.

I was a killer.
Yes, I am a killer.

I come from killing.
I go to more.
I drive red joy ahead of me from killing.
Red gluts and red hungers run in the smears and juices of my inside bones:
The child cries for a suck mother and I cry for war.



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