A Million Young Work Men Poem by Carl Sandburg

A Million Young Work Men

Rating: 3.2


A million young workmen straight and strong lay stiff on the grass and roads,
And the million are now under soil and their rottening flesh will in the years feed roots of blood-red roses.
Yes, this million of young workmen slaughtered one another and never saw their red hands.
And oh, it would have been a great job of killing and a new and beautiful thing under the sun if the million knew why they hacked and tore each other to death.
The kings are grinning, the Kaiser and the czar—they are alive riding in leather-seated motor cars, and they have their women and roses for ease, and they eat fresh-poached eggs for breakfast, new butter on toast, sitting in tall water-tight houses reading the news of war.
I dreamed a million ghosts of the young workmen rose in their shirts all soaked in crimson … and yelled:
God damn the grinning kings, God damn the kaiser and the czar.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Jack Ryan 30 April 2018

Jesus this dude was nuts

0 3 Reply
Michael Walker 20 October 2019

A successful anti-World War I poem. Young men fought and died in that futile war, while the German Kaiser and the Russian Czar survived to live a comfortable life. There is compassion and criticism in this powerful poem.

0 0 Reply
Richard Wlodarski 30 May 2022

One of the best poets of our time! And one of his best poems! Someone should send this poem to Putin!

0 0 Reply
Chinedu Dike 24 May 2022

Focused and factual. Facts do not cease to exist because they're being ignored. A work of an intricate mind.

0 0 Reply

And Nixons and Kissingers and bushs

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Part 2. Nothing has changed even today. The only change is Kings have given way for putins and xi jinpings. That is all

0 0 Reply

A most forceful anti war poem. Relevant to this day. " The kings are grinning, the Kaiser and the czar" while….. " A million young workmen straight and strong lay stiff on the grass and roads" dead.

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