The suicides will never cease
To sweep the peaks in
fighter planes
Informers, or the rich,
will keep
The valley for their
patriot pains.
The epoch of the second
finest
Killing for the second
best
Hangs like a ticket
round our journey--
A welcome, then, to
unsuccess.
Madness-in-action on the
height
The spirit's death below--
There's only left the
timber line
Where the pine meets the
snow.
Where the last of
Europe's eagles
Starve, and watch the
mountain road
With the ibex for their
sentry
And the wind for their
abode.
Brian Howard
(Published in Harper's Magazine, 1952)
(Published in Harper's Magazine, 1952)
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