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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE THRESHING-FLOOR, by DOROTHY PAUL First Line: Beyond the valleys flushed with almond-buds Last Line: "as kings give unto kings." | |||
Beyond the valleys flushed with almond-buds, Beyond the blue, deep circle of Judean hills, Where yet the mist of new-fledged olive-boughs Lay gray as rain, The fleece-girt shepherds shaded troubled brows To see them go, The hosts of David, bannered, terrible, Across the plain, Winding in purple pomp to Jericho, And still the leaf was green upon the fig, And still The wild grape pitched her bronzing tabernacles On the hill, When they came back across the gilding fields In broken might, Seeking, beside his wheat-gold threshing-floor, Ornan the Jebusite. So have they come to us, the broken kings, To stand among our wheat-chaff and our flails, Staining our mill-stones with the blood and fire Of covenant. Lo! we have known too long the field, the byre, Have loved too well The goodly thunder of the flails upon the floor, The threshers' chant; Too long have lingered in the market-place to sell And weigh. Not only wheat and oxen shall they take Of us, -- nay, Corn and oil and the burnt flesh of sacrifice, these things Be lesser things, -- Take of our sons, our prayers, our blood, that we may give "As kings give unto kings." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...NICHARCHUS UPON PHIDON HIS DOCTOR by EZRA POUND TREES by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS IN THE HOME STRETCH by ROBERT FROST RETALIATION by OLIVER GOLDSMITH TO THE DANDELION by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL BINGEN ON THE RHINE by CAROLINE ELIZABETH SARAH SHERIDAN NORTON THE FLIGHT OF LOVE by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY PENITENTIAL PSALM: 130. DE PROFUNDIS by THOMAS WYATT |
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