Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, POLITICAL SONG FOR THE YEAR'S END, by THOMAS MCGRATH


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

POLITICAL SONG FOR THE YEAR'S END, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The darkness of the year begins
Last Line: Sing to the moon, for every change is known
Subject(s): Holidays; New Year; Politics & Government; Socialism


1.

The darkness of the year begins,
In which we hunt the summer kings.
(Who will kill Cock Robin when
His breast is cheery with his sin?)
And when, transfigured in the skies,
The starry, hunted hero dies,
The redemptive rain of his golden blood
Quickens the barley of the Good.
Sing to the moon, for every change must come.

2.

The democratic senator
's conjunctive to the warrior star,
And Market wavers into trine
As the geared heavens tick and shine.
The Worker snores; the Poet drowses
Through all his literary Houses;
The Goose hangs high, the Wife lays low,
And all the children are on Snow.
Sing to the moon, for every change is known.

3.

Each role must change. Each change must come.
Turning, we make the great Wheel turn
In a rage of impotence, forth and back
Through the stations of history's zodiac.
Caught in the trap of our daily bread,
A hopeful, stumbling multitude,
We surrender and struggle, save and slay,
Turning the Wheel in the ancient way.
Sing to the moon; for every change must pass.

4.

And now with an indifferent eye
We see our savior hunted by,
Into that furious dark of time
His only death may all redeem.
And when at last that time is grown
When all the great shall be cast down,
We rejoice to praise who now is slain --
For the darkness of the year is come.
Sing to the moon, for every change is known.


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org




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