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245
Brodsky 13b Recto
This version of stanza 6 does not bother to repeat the first five lines which Faulkner apparently felt were sufficiently formulated; rather, it restates the firefly image, attempts more narrative, then posits a line which will become instrumental as a refrain for the finished poem: 'There is an end to this somewhere.' Importantly, in the last six lines on the page, Faulkner furthers the image of the 'black earth' and writes what, with minimal change to line three, will become the second half of stanza 6, in the first "complete" pencil draft.
And the air was alive with Huns
And the great black earth reaching ['after us' del.] up for us
A spewing of guns
And a dance
Of tracers like fireflies over a deep meadow
They boxed us and did us in
Three Huns followed ['us,' del.] after us
Until the machine began to break
And scream from the speed of falling
And I threw away my goggles
And the great black earth reaching ['after us' del.] up for us
A spewing of guns
And a dance
Of tracers like fireflies over a deep meadow
They boxed us and did us in
Three Huns followed ['us,' del.] after us
Until the machine began to break
And scream from the speed of falling
And I threw away my goggles
There is an end to this somewhere
I
The black earth pulled us down, that night
Out of the bullet tortured air
That was like ['an enorm' del.] a great bowl full of fireflies
There is an end to this somewhere
['We are too young to die' del.]
One should not die like this
Out of the bullet tortured air
That was like ['an enorm' del.] a great bowl full of fireflies
There is an end to this somewhere
['We are too young to die' del.]
One should not die like this
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