Modern Poetry and the Tradition by Cleanth Brooks

Author:Cleanth Brooks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 1939-07-20T16:00:00+00:00

The poem continues with a recitation of a miscellany of items typical of the life of men:

We planted corn grapes apple-trees rhubarb . . .

We believed in the promises made by the brows of women . . .

We fought at the dikes in the bright sun for the pride of it . . .

to conclude with the lines,

Many cities are gone and their channels broken

We have lived a long time in this land and with honor.

The poem is typical of all men everywhere. It might be spoken by Assyrians or Greeks or modern Americans. It is a tribute to MacLeish’s skill in the use of imagery that the items, though sharp and distinct, give no clue—do not date or locate (and therefore, in this case, limit) the poem.

The images, of course, do a great deal more than this. They establish and sustain a certain tone. The history has its dignity and its simple seriousness. Man’s foolishness and knavery are an integral part of that history—

We were drunk and lay with our fine dreams in the straw . . .

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