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 | Collected poems of Herman Melville |  |
TROPHIES OF PEACE
ILLINOIS IN 1840
Files on files of Prairie Maize:
On hosts of spears the morning plays!
Aloft the rustling streamers show:
The floss embrowned is rich below.
On hosts of spears the morning plays!
Aloft the rustling streamers show:
The floss embrowned is rich below.
When Asia scarfed in silks came on
Against the Greek and Marathon,
Did each plume and pennon dance
Sun-lit thus on helm and lance
Mindless of War's sickle so?
Against the Greek and Marathon,
Did each plume and pennon dance
Sun-lit thus on helm and lance
Mindless of War's sickle so?
For them, a tasseled dance of death:
For these—the reapers reap them low.
Reap them low, and stack the plain
With Ceres' trophies, golden grain.
Such monuments, and only such,
O Prairie! termless yield,
Though trooper Mars disdainful flout
Nor Annals fame the field.
For these—the reapers reap them low.
Reap them low, and stack the plain
With Ceres' trophies, golden grain.
267
O Prairie! termless yield,
Though trooper Mars disdainful flout
Nor Annals fame the field.
| Collected poems of Herman Melville | |