Wednesday, July 4, 2012

these heroic happy dead

Have some ee cummings for the fourth of July.

"next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn's early my
country 'tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
iful than these heroic happy dead
who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
they did not stop to think they died instead
then shall the voice of liberty be mute?"

He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water

3 comments:

  1. A scary and depressing thought I have is that there are probably some far-right types out there who would actually take this poem as a celebration of their values.

    ReplyDelete
  2. To continue my train of thought, I wonder whether there's a way to get Sarah Palin to give her reaction (publicly, of course) to this poem, don'tchaknowyoubetcha.

    *evil grin*

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hmm, well. I guess I'd hope that most people could catch satire as they read, but perhaps I'm overestimating the reading skills of the general American population.

    ReplyDelete