Revolt
Bring hither the beams of the corncribs, my children. The dung heaps are burned. Strong hands have gripped the rope whereby the horses were tied. The fish nets of the Northwest and the sheep gates of Michigan are opened to me.
I have put my neck and my hands to the work, O my children. How black your eyes have become. They gleam in the darkness. The souls of Ulysses and of Abraham have been opened to me. By the coal heaps near the factory door my men are assembled.
Tipping the water-gates of the rivers the night riders assemble. In the cities the grey little foxes lie low. By the howling of dogs in the silence the decay of men is proclaimed.
Long nights we were weeping the prelude, my brothers. The madness and washing of hands has been done. The sweetness of apples—the fatness of cornfields—the whoring of men for strange gods is begun.
Words in this poem
- tipping n.
- A distinct articulation given in playing quick notes on the flute, by striking the tongue against the roof of the mouth; double- tonguing.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Revolt is in the public domain. This text is taken from Mid-American Chants (New York: John Lane Company; London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1918), Internet Archive; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Sherwood Anderson, Revolt, in Mid-American Chants (1918), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/anderson-mid-american-chants/revolt.html, id L29458.
About this section
Revolt is prose, printed in 4 paragraphs. It is part of the edition and is kept for reading, but nothing here is measured: the line breaks are the printer's, so no metre, rhyme scheme or scansion is stated.
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.