-
American Portrait: Old Style (An Excerpt)
- The University Press of Kentucky
- Chapter
- Additional Information
American Portrait: Old Style (An Excerpt) ROBERT P E N N WARREN II The Dark and Bloody Ground, so the teacher romantically said, But one look out the window, and woods and ruined cornfields we saw: A careless-flung corner of country, no hope and no history here. No hope but the Pullman lights that swept Night-fields—glass-glint from some farmhouse and flicker of ditches— Or the night freight's moan on the rise where You might catch a ride on the rods, Just for hell, or if need had arisen. No history either—no Harrod or Finley or Boone, No tale how the Bluebellies broke at the Rebel yell and cold steel. So we had to invent it all, our Bloody Ground, K and I, And him the best shot in ten counties and could call any bird-note back, But school out, not big enough for the ballgame, And in the full tide of summer, not ready For the twelve-gauge yet, or even a job, so what Can you do but pick up your BBs and Benjamin, Stick corn pone in pocket, and head out "To Rally in the Cane-Brake and Shoot the Buffalo"— As my grandfather's cracked old voice would sing it From days of his own grandfather—and often enough It was only a Plymouth Rock or maybe a fat Dominecker That fell to the crack of the unerring Decherd. From Now and Then: Poems 1976-1978 (1978) 349 ...