Classic Poem

Borrows a Megaphone and Chants The Glorious Fourth .

I

Bang!
And the dawn
Burst madly on
The world like a cosmic cannon-cracker.
And the great cloud-pack
Began to crack
Like a stack of black and crackling lacquer.
Bang — bang — bang — bang — BANG!
BANG!
The echoes crashed,
The echoes smashed,
The echoes flashed
And dashed abashed
Out of the city and never stopped.
And a thousand small boys gayly dropped
Paper torpedoes
Like outworn credos.
And under the tin-cans,
Sputtering within cans,
The fire-crackers puttered as they pop-pop-popped:
" Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers;
" Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers —
Bang — bang — bang — bang — BANG!
Pop. . . . . . . "

Then I heard the battle,
Then I saw the flare;
Then I heard the muskets rattle
Through the shuddering air.

Gone were the urchins and the city-streets;
Gone were the merchants and the snares and cheats.
Lo, from the mist of more than six score years,
Rose the thunder of a nation's cheers;
Boys and farmers shook the old world's pride
And a thousand Washingtons went forth and died.

II

ssssSSHHhh. . . . . . .
Now the light goes
And suddenly there
The dark earth glows
Transfigured and fair,
As the first roman-candles leap in the air.
And now the first
Great flower-pots burst
And the pin-wheel whirls like a fiery sprocket;
And lo, like a bolt released from its socket,
Trailing its fires
Like fierce desires,
On-on-upward goes the first sky-rocket.

Siss-siss-ssscreaming through the startled skies,
Siss-siss-ssspilling stars before it dies.
Siss — boom — ah. . . .
ssssSHhh. . . .
'A-a-h. . . . . . . . .

Then I saw a people,
Then I heard a shout,
While from hearth and steeple
All the bells rang out.
Heard the loud bells, proud bells, spire-bells,
Heard the call bells, hall-bells, fire-bells,
Gay bells, sleigh-bells, night and day bells;
Singing there and swinging there and all together ringing there:
" Ding-dong — clangaranga — boom, boom-ah.
Ding-dong — clangaranga — boom, boom-ah;
Rejoice, oh people, ye shall live and be
Free and equal in a land made free! "

WHAT?

" Well, almost equal — almost free.
Fear no more from tyranny,
But with loud democracy
While the starry symbol waves
In a land of liberty,
Yankees never shall be slaves! "
Bang, bang; ding-dong — boom, boom-ah;
Clangaranga, clangaranga — sis-boom-bah.
Bang — Bang — bang — bang — BANG!
Ssshh. . . . . . .
Pop. . . . Pop. . . . Pop. . . .
Bah. . . . !