Song of Cedric the Silent
Songs come to my lips every hour. I shall hurl my songs down the winds of the world. Like a blow, a kiss, a caress, my songs shall come.
Like a guest I am come into the house, the terrible house. So gentle and quiet I come they do not know me. The son of Irwin and Emma I am, here in America, come into a kingship.
I would destroy and build up. I would set up new kings. The impatience has gone out of me. Hatred and evil I have put far away.
Do you remember when you crept close to me, wanting to touch my body? What a night—how it rained.
How could you know, how could you know in me there was oblivion?
The terrible poison of my body has laid waste the land. I embrace Hell for you, go to my damnation for my love of you.
Into the land of my fathers, from Huron to Keokuk, beauty shall come—out of the black ground, out of the deep black ground.
Squaw man, red man, old and decrepit, into the mighty wheels of the engine I hurl these songs.
Twenty weeks I lay on the bleak hillside, waiting for you. When you came and spoke how I trembled. Down the lane, through the woods to the meadows you ran. Then I knew.
Broad long fields. Wheat that stands up.
Cedric, the son of Irwin and Emma, stand up. Give your life, give your soul to America now. Cedric, be strong.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- caress n.
- An act of endearment; any act or expression of affection; an embracing, or touching, with tenderness. [F. caresse, It. carezza, LL. caritia dearness, fr. L. carus dear. See Charity.]
- kingship n.
- The state, office, or dignity of a king; royalty. Landor.
- oblivion n.
- The act of forgetting, or the state of being forgotten; cessation of remembrance; forgetfulness. [L. oblivio, akin to oblivisci to forget: cf. OF. oblivion.]
- damnation n.
- The state of being damned; condemnation; openly expressed disapprobation. [F. damnation, L. damnatio, fr. damnare. See Damn.]
- decrepit a.
- Broken down with age; wasted and enfeebled by the infirmities of old age; feeble; worn out. [L. decrepitus, perhaps orig., noised out, noiseless, applied to old people, who creep about quietly; de- + crepare to make a noise, rattle: cf. F. décrépit. See]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Song of Cedric the Silent 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, Song of Cedric the Silent, in Mid-American Chants (1918), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/anderson-mid-american-chants/song-of-cedric-the-silent.html, id L29455.
About this section
Song of Cedric the Silent is prose, printed in 11 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.
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