{ "id": "john-g-neihardt/the-song-of-the-indian-wars", "title": "The Song of the Indian Wars", "ordinal": null, "subtitle": null, "poet": "John G. Neihardt", "poet_slug": "john-g-neihardt", "language": "en", "book": "A Cycle of the West", "book_slug": "a-cycle-of-the-west", "book_kind": "volume", "sequence": 5, "container": "The Song of the Indian Wars", "epigraph": null, "first_published": { "year": 1925, "venue": "The Song of the Indian Wars (1925)", "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.", "uncertain": false, "sources": [ "https://archive.org/details/bp_574832" ] }, "source": { "kind": "standard-ebooks", "repo": "standardebooks/john-g-neihardt_a-cycle-of-the-west", "file": "the-song-of-the-indian-wars.xhtml", "upstream": [ "https://archive.org/details/songthree00neihrich", "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000673224", "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53667", "https://archive.org/details/songofhughglass00neih", "https://archive.org/details/bp_574832" ], "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)" }, "verification": { "level": "structural-only", "last_checked": "2026-08-20" }, "stats": { "n_lines": 4981, "n_stanzas": 353, "n_parts": 14, "longest_line_chars": 57, "max_indent": 9 }, "site_ready": true, "parts": [ { "ordinal": "I", "title": "The Sowing of the Dragon", "stanza_range": [ 0, 11 ] }, { "ordinal": "II", "title": "Red Cloud", "stanza_range": [ 11, 36 ] }, { "ordinal": "III", "title": "The Council on the Powder", "stanza_range": [ 36, 59 ] }, { "ordinal": "IV", "title": "Fort Phil Kearney", "stanza_range": [ 59, 89 ] }, { "ordinal": "V", "title": "Rubbed Out", "stanza_range": [ 89, 115 ] }, { "ordinal": "VI", "title": "The Wagon Boxes", "stanza_range": [ 115, 160 ] }, { "ordinal": "VII", "title": "Beecher’s Island", "stanza_range": [ 160, 212 ] }, { "ordinal": "VIII", "title": "The Yellow God", "stanza_range": [ 212, 228 ] }, { "ordinal": "IX", "title": "The Village of Crazy Horse", "stanza_range": [ 228, 243 ] }, { "ordinal": "X", "title": "The Sun Dance", "stanza_range": [ 243, 254 ] }, { "ordinal": "XI", "title": "The Seventh Marches", "stanza_range": [ 254, 266 ] }, { "ordinal": "XII", "title": "High Noon on the Little Horn", "stanza_range": [ 266, 309 ] }, { "ordinal": "XIII", "title": "The Twilight", "stanza_range": [ 309, 330 ] }, { "ordinal": "XIV", "title": "The Death of Crazy Horse", "stanza_range": [ 330, 353 ] } ], "stanzas": [ [ { "text": "At last the four year storm of fratricide", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had ceased at Appomattox, and the tide", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of war-bit myriads, like a turning sea’s,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Recoiled upon the deep realities", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That yield no foam to any squall of change.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now many a hearth of home had gotten strange", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To eyes that knew sky-painting flares of war.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So much that once repaid the striving for", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No longer mattered. Yonder road that ran", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At hazard once beyond the ways of Man", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By haunted vale and space-enchanted hill,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had never dreamed of aught but Jones’s Mill⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A dull pedestrian! The spring, where erst", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The peering plowboy sensed a larger thirst,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had shoaled from awe, so long the man had drunk", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At deeper floods. How yonder field had shrunk", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That billowed once mysteriously far", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To where the cow-lot nursed the evening star", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And neighbored with the drowsing moon and sun!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For O what winds of wrath had boomed and", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across what vaster fields of moaning grain⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rich seedings, nurtured by a ghastly rain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To woeful harvest!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So the world went small.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But ’mid the wreck of things remembered tall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An epidemic rumor murmured now.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men leaned upon the handles of the plow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To hear and dream; and through the harrow-smoke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The weird voice muttered and the vision broke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of distant, princely acres unpossessed.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Again the bugles of the Race blew west", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That once the Tigris and Euphrates heard.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In unsuspected deeps of being stirred", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The ancient and compelling Aryan urge.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A homing of the homeless, surge on surge,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The valley roads ran wagons, and the hills", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through lane and by-way fed with trickling rills", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The man-stream mighty with a mystic thaw.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All summer now the Mississippi saw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What long ago the Hellespont beheld.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The shrewd, prophetic eyes that peered of eld", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the Danube, visioned naked plains", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beyond the bleak Missouri, clad with grains,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Jewelled with orchard, grove and greening garth⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Serene abundance centered in a hearth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To nurture lusty children.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "On they swirled,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The driving breed, the takers of the world,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The makers and the bringers of the law.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now up along the bottoms of the Kaw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The drifting reek of wheel and hoof arose.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The kiotes talked about it and the crows", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the lone Republican; and still", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bison saw it on the Smoky Hill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Solomon; while yonder on the Platte", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ten thousand wagons scarred the sandy flat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Between the green grass season and the brown.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A name sufficed to make the camp a town,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A whim unmade. In spaces wide as air,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And late as empty, now the virile share", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Quickened the virgin meadowlands of God;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And lo, begotten of the selfsame sod,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The house and harvest!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So the Cadmian breed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wedders of the vision and the deed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went forth to sow the dragon-seed again.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But there were those⁠—and they were also men⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who saw the end of sacred things and dear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In all this wild beginning; saw with fear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ancestral pastures gutted by the plow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bison harried ceaselessly, and how", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They dwindled moon by moon; with pious dread", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beheld the holy places of their dead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mock of aliens.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Sioux, Arapahoe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cheyenne, Commanche, Kiowa and Crow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In many a council pondered what befell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The prairie world. Along the Musselshell,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Tongue, the Niobrara, all they said", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the Platte, the Arkansaw, the Red", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was echoed word by peril-laden word.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along Popo Agie and the Horn they heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The clank of hammers and the clang of rails", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where hordes of white men conjured iron trails", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now crawling past the Loup Fork and the Blue.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By desert-roaming Cimarron they knew,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And where La Poudre heads the tale was known,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How, snoring up beyond the Yellowstone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The medicine-canoes breathed flame and steam", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, like weird monsters of an evil dream,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spewed foes⁠—a multitudinary spawn!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Were all the teeming regions of the dawn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unpeopled now? What devastating need", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had set so many faces pale with greed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against the sunset? Not as men who seek", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some meed of kindness, suppliant and meek,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "These hungry myriads came. They did but look,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And whatsoever pleased them, that they took.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their faded eyes were icy, lacking ruth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all their tongues were forked to split the truth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That word and deed might take diverging ways.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bewildered in the dusk of ancient days", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Red Men groped; and howsoever loud", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The hopeful hotheads boasted in the crowd,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wise ones heard prophetic whisperings", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through aching hushes; felt the end of things", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Inexorably shaping. What should be", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Already was to them. And who can flee", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His shadow or his doom? Though cowards stride", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wind-wild thunder-horses, Doom shall ride", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The arrows of the lightning, and prevail.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ere long whole tribes must take the spirit trail", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As once they travelled to the bison hunt.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then let it be with many wounds⁠—in front⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many scalps, to show their ghostly kin", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How well they fought the fight they could not win,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To perish facing what they could not kill.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So down upon the Platte and Smoky Hill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swept war; and all their valleys were afraid.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The workers where the trails were being laid", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To speed the iron horses, now must get", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their daily wage in blood as well as sweat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With gun and shovel. Often staring plains", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beheld at daybreak gutted wagon-trains", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Set foursquare to the whirling night-attack,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With neither hoof nor hand to bring them back", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To Omaha or Westport. Every week", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The roiling coaches bound for Cherry Creek", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were scarred in running battle. Every day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some ox-rig, creeping California way⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That paradise of every hope fulfilled⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was plundered and the homesick driver killed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forlornly fighting for his little brood.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And often was the prairie solitude", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Aware by night of burning ricks and roofs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stampeding cattle and the fleeing hoofs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of wild marauders.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Sullenly a gale", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That blustered rainless up the Bozeman Trail", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was bringing June again; but not the dear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Deep-bosomed mother of a hemisphere", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That other regions cherish. Flat of breast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "More passionate than loving, up the West", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A stern June strode, lean suckler of the lean,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her rag-and-tatter robe of faded green", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Blown dustily about her.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Afternoon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now held the dazzled prairie in a swoon;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And where the Platte and Laramie unite,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The naked heavens slanted blinding light", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the bare Fort Laramie parade.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The groping shadow-arm the flag-pole swayed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To nightward, served to emphasize the glare;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ’mid Saharan hollows of the air", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "One haughty flower budded from the mast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bloomed and withered as the gale soughed past", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To languish in the swelter.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Growing loud,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When some objection wakened in the crowd,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or dwindling to a murmur of assent,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still on and on the stubborn parley went", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of many treaty makers gathered here.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Big talk there was at Laramie that year", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of ’sixty-six; for lo, a mighty word", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Great White Father spoke, and it was heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From peep of morning to the sunset fires.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The southwind took it from the talking wires", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And gave it to the gusty west that blew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Its meaning down the country of the Sioux", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Past Inyan Kara to Missouri’s tide.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The eager eastwind took and flung it wide", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To where lush valleys gaze at lofty snow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All summer long. And now Arapahoe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The word was; now Dakota; now Cheyenne;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But still one word: “Let grass be green again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the trails of war and hatred cease,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For many presents and the pipe of peace", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Are waiting yonder at the Soldier’s Town!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there were some who heard it with a frown", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And said, remembering the White Man’s guile:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Make yet more arrows when the foemen smile.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And others, wise with many winters, said:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Life narrows, and the better days are dead.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Make war upon the sunset! Will it stay?”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And some who counselled with a dream would say:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Great Spirit made all peoples. White and Red,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And pitched one big blue teepee overhead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That men might live as brothers side by side.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behold! Is not our country very wide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With room enough for all?” And there were some", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who answered scornfully: “Not so they come;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their medicine is strong, their hearts are bad;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A little part of what our fathers had", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They give us now, tomorrow come and take.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Great Spirit also made the rattlesnake", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And over him the big blue teepee set!”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So wrought the Great White Father’s word; and yet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Despite remembered and suspected wrong,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because the Long Knife’s medicine was strong,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their lacked not mighty chieftains who obeyed.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A thousand Ogalalas Man Afraid", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Red Cloud marshalled on the council trail;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A thousand Brulés followed Spotted Tail.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cheyennes, Arapahoes came riding down", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By hundreds; till the little Soldier Town", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was big with teepees.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Where the white June drowse", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beat slanting through a bower of withered boughs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That cast a fretwork travesty of shade,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now sat the peace-commissioners and made", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Soft words to woo the chieftains of the bands.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“They wanted but a roadway through the lands", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wherein the Rosebud, Tongue and Powder head,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That white men, seeking for the yellow lead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the Madison, might pass that way.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There ran the shortest trail by many a day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of weary travel. This could do no harm;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor would there be occasion for alarm", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If they should wish to set a fort or two", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Up yonder⁠—not against Cheyenne and Sioux,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But rather that the Great White Father’s will", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Might be a curb upon his people still", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Red Men’s rights be guarded by the laws.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Adroitly phrased, with many a studied pause,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In which the half-breed spokesmen, bit by bit,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Reshaped the alien speech and scattered it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The purpose of the council swept at last", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the lounging crowd. And where it passed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The feathered headgear swayed and bent together", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With muttering, as when in droughty weather", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A little whirlwind sweeps the tasseled corn.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some bull-lunged Ogalala’s howl of scorn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was hurled against the few assenting “hows”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the Brulés. Then the summer drowse", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came back, the vibrant silence of the heat;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For Man Afraid had gotten to his feet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His face set hard, one straight arm rising slow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against the Whites, as though he bent a bow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yonder should the fleshing arrow fly.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So stood he, and the moments creeping by", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were big with expectation. Still and tense,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The council felt the wordless eloquence", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Man Afraid; and then:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“I tell you no!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When Harney talked to us ten snows ago", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He gave us all that country. Now you say", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The White Chief lied. My heart is bad today,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because I know too well the forkèd tongue", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That makes a promise when the moon is young,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And kills it when the moon is in the dark!”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Ogalalas roared; and like a spark", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That crawls belated when the fuse is damp,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The words woke sequent thunders through the camp", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Cheyennes heard it and Arapahoes.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then once again the chieftain’s voice arose:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Your talk is sweet today. So ever speak", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The white men when they know their hands are weak", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That itch to steal. But once your soldiers pitch", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their teepees yonder, will the same hands itch", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The less for being stronger? Go around.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I do not want you in my hunting ground!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You scare my bison, and my folk must eat.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far sweeter than your words are, home is sweet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To us, as you; and yonder land is home.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In sheltered valleys elk and bison roam", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All winter there, and in the spring are fat.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We gave the road you wanted up the Platte.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Make dust upon it then! But you have said", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The shortest way to find the yellow lead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Runs yonder. Any trail is short enough", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That leads your greedy people to the stuff", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That makes them crazy! It is bad for you.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I, Man Afraid, have spoken. Hetchetu!”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "How, how, how, how! A howl of fighting men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swept out across the crowd and back again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To break about the shadow-mottled stand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Colonel Maynadier, with lifted hand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Awaited silence. “As a soldier should,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He spoke straight words and few. His heart was good.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Great White Father would be very sad", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To know the heart of Man Afraid was bad", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And how his word was called a crooked word.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It could not be that Man Afraid had heard.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The council had not said that Harney lied.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It wanted but a little road, as wide", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As that a wagon makes from wheel to wheel.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Long Knife chieftains had not come to steal", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Red Men’s hunting ground.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The half-breeds cried", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The speech abroad; but where it fell, it died.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "One heard the flag a-ripple at the mast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bicker of the river flowing past,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The melancholy crooning of the gale.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now ’mid the bodeful silence, Spotted Tail", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Arose, and all the people leaned to hear;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For was he not a warrior and a seer", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose deeds were mighty as his words were wise?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some droll, shrewd spirit in his narrowed eyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Seemed peering past the moment and afar", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To where predestined things already are;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And humor lurked beneath the sober mien,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But half concealed, as though the doom foreseen", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Revealed the old futility of tears.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Remembering the story of his years,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His Brulé warriors loved him standing so.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And some recalled that battle long ago", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far off beside the upper Arkansaw,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When, like the freshet of a sudden thaw,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Utes came down; and how the Brulés, caught", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In ambush, sang the death-song as they fought,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For many were the foes and few were they;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet Spotted Tail, a stripling fresh from play,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had saved them with his daring and his wit.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How often when the dark of dawn was lit", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With flaming wagon-tops, his battle-cry", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had made it somehow beautiful to die,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A whirlwind joy! And how the leaping glare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had shown by fits the snow-fall of despair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the white men’s faces! Well they knew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That every brave who followed him was two,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So mighty was the magic of his name.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And none forgot the first time Harney came⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His whetted deaths that chattered in the sheath,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The long blue snake that set the ground beneath", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A-smoulder with a many-footed rage.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What bleeding of the Brulés might assuage", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That famished fury? Vain were cunning words", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To pay the big arrears for harried herds", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And desolated homes and settlers slain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many a looted coach and wagon-train", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all that sweat of terror in the land!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who now went forth to perish, that his band", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Might still go free? Lo, yonder now he stood!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And none forgot his loving hardihood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The day he put the ghost paint on his face", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, dressed for death, went singing to the place", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Harney’s soldiers waited.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Brothers, friends!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Slow words he spoke. “The longest summer ends,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And nothing stays forever. We are old.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Can anger check the coming of the cold?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When frosts begin men think of meat and wood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And how to make the days of winter good", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With what the summer leaves them of its cheer.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Two times I saw the first snow deepen here,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The last snow melt; and twice the grass was brown", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When I was living at the Soldier’s Town", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To save my Brulés. All the while I thought", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About this alien people I had fought,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until a cloud was lifted from my eyes.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I saw how some great spirit makes them wise.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I saw a white Missouri flowing men,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And knew old times could never be again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This side of where the spirit sheds its load.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then let us give the Powder River road,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For they will take it if we do not give.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not all can die in battle. Some must live.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I think of those and what is best for those.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dakotas, I have spoken.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Cries arose", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From where his band of Brulé warriors sat⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The cries that once sent Panic up the Platte,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An eyeless runner panting through the gloom.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For though their chief had seen the creeping doom", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like some black cloud that gnaws the prairie rim,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet echoes of their charges under him", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had soared and sung above the words he said.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now silence, like some music of the dead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That holds a throng of new-born spirits awed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Possessed the brooding crowd. A lone crow cawed.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A wind fled moaning like a wildered ghost.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So clung that vatic hush upon the host", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until the Bad Face Ogalala band", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Saw Red Cloud coming forward on the stand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Serene with conscious might, a king of men.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then all the hills were ululant again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As though a horde of foes came charging there;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For here was one who never gave despair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A moral mien, nor schooled a righteous hate", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To live at peace with evil. Tall and straight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He stood and scanned the now quiescent crowd;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then faced the white commissioners and bowed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A gracious bow⁠—the gesture of a knight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose courage pays due deference to might", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before the trumpets breathe the battle’s breath.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not now he seemed that fearful lord of death,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose swarm of charging warriors, clad in red,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were like a desolating thunder-head", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against an angry sunset. Many a Sioux", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Recalled the time he fought alone and slew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His father’s slayers, Bull Bear and his son,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While yet a fameless youth; and many a one", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About the fort, remembering Grattán", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all his troopers slaughtered by a man", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So bland of look and manner, wondered much.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Soft to the ear as velvet to the touch,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His speech, that lacked but little to be song,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Caressed the fringing hushes of the throng", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where many another’s cry would scarce be clear.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“My brothers, when you see this prairie here,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You see my mother. Forty snows and four", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Have blown and melted since the son she bore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "First cried at Platte Forks yonder, weak and blind;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And whether winter-stern or summer-kind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her ways with me were wise. Her thousand laps", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Have shielded me. Her ever-giving paps", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Have suckled me and made me tall for war.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What presents shall I trade my mother for?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A string of beads? A scarlet rag or two?”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Already he was going ere they knew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That he had ceased. Among the people fled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A sound as when the frosted oaks are red", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And naked thickets shiver in the flaws.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far out among the lodges keened the squaws,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shrill with a sorrow women understand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As though the mother-passion of the land", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had found a human voice to claim the child.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "With lifted brows the bland commission smiled,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As clever men who share a secret joke.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "At length the Brulé, Swift Bear, rose and spoke,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twixt fear and favor poised. He seemed a man", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who, doubting both his ponies, rode the span", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And used the quirt with caution. Black Horse then", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Harangued the crowd a space, the words, Cheyenne,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their sense, an echo of the White Man’s plea,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rebounding from a tense expectancy", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of many pleasing gifts.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But all the while", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "These wrestled with the question, mile on mile", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The White Man’s answer crept along the road⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Two hundred mule-teams, leaning to the load,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And seven hundred soldiers! Middle May", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had seen their dust cloud slowly trail away", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From Kearney. Rising ever with the sun", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And falling when the evening had begun,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It drifted westward. When the low-swung moon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was like a cradle for the baby June,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They camped at Julesburg. Yet another week", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the South Platte’s flood to Pumpkin Creek", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They fought the stubborn road. Beneath the towers", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Court House Rock, awash in starry showers,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their fagged herd grazed. Past Chimney Rock they crawled;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Past where the roadway narrows, dizzy walled;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Past Mitchell Post. And now, intent to win", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ere dusk to where the Laramie comes in,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The surly teamsters swore and plied the goad.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The lurching wagons grumbled at the road,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The trace-chains clattered and the spent mules brayed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Protesting as the cracking lashes played", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On lathered withers bitten to the red;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, glinting in the slant glare overhead,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A big dust beckoned to the Soldier’s Town.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "It happened now that Red Cloud, peering down", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dazzling valley road with narrowed eyes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beheld that picture-writing on the skies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And knitted puzzled brows to make it out.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So, weighing this and that, a lonely scout", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Might read a trail by moonlight. Loudly still", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The glib logicians wrangled, as they will,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The freer for the prime essential lacked⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A due allowance for the Brutal Fact,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That, by the vulgar trick of being so,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Confounds logicians.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Lapsing in a flow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of speech and counter-speech, a half hour passed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While Red Cloud stared and pondered. Then at last", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men saw him rise and leave his brooding place,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The flinty look of battle on his face,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A gripping claw of wrath between his brows.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Electric in the sullen summer drowse,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The silence deepened, waiting for his word;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But still he gazed, nor spoke. The people heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The river lipping at a stony brink,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rippling flag, then suddenly the clink", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of bridle-bits, the tinkling sound of spurs.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The chieftains and the white commissioners", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pressed forward with a buzzing of surprise.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The people turned.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Atop a gentle rise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That cut the way from fort to ford in half,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came Carrington a-canter with his staff,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yonder, miles behind, the reeking air", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Revealed how many others followed there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To do his will.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now rising to a shout,", "indent": 8 }, { "text": "The voice of Red Cloud towered, crushing out", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wonder-hum that ran from band to band:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“These white men here have begged our hunting land.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their words are crookèd and their tongues are split;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For even while they feign to beg for it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their soldiers come to steal it! Let them try,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And prove how good a warrior is a lie,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And learn how Ogalalas meet a thief!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You, Spotted Tail, may be the beggar’s chief⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I go to keep my mother-land from harm!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He tapped his rifle nestled in his arm.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“From now I put my trust in this!” he said", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With lowered voice; then pointing overhead,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Great Spirit, too, will help me!”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "With a bound", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He cleared the bower-railing for the ground,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And shouting “Bring the horses in,” he made", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His way across the turbulent parade", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To where the Ogalala lodges stood.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So, driving down some hollow in a wood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A great wind shoulders through the tangled ruck", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And after it, swirled inward to the suck,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The crested timber roars.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then, like a bird", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That fills a sudden lull, again was heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The clink of steel as Carrington rode through", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The man-walled lane that cleft the crowd in two;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, hobbling after, mindless of the awe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That favors might, a toothless, ancient squaw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lifted a feeble fist at him and screamed.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Serenely now the ghost of summer dreamed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On Powder River. ’Twas the brooding time,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With nights of starlight glinting on the rime", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That cured the curly grass for winter feed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And days of blue and gold when scarce a reed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Might stir along the runnels, lean with drouth.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some few belated cranes were going south,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And any hour the blizzard wind might bawl;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But still the tawny fingers of the Fall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lay whist upon the maw of Winter.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Thrice", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The moon had been a melting boat of ice", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the burning breakers of the west,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Since Red Cloud, bitter-hearted, topped the crest", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above the Fort and took the homeward track,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Bad Face Ogalalas at his back", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And some few Brulés. Silently he rode,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And they who saw him bent as with a load", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of all the tribal sorrow that should be,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pursued the trail as silently as he⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A fateful silence, boding little good.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beyond the mouth of Bitter Cottonwood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They travelled; onward through the winding halls", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Platte is darkened; and the listening walls", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Heard naught of laughter⁠—heard the ponies blow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rawhide creak upon the bent travaux,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The lodge-poles skid and slidder in the sand.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor yet beyond amid the meadowland", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was any joy; nor did the children play,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Despite the countless wooers by the way⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wild larkspur, tulip, bindweed, prairie pea.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The shadow of a thing that was to be", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fell on them too, though what they could not tell.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Still on, beyond the Horseshoe and La Prele,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They toiled up Sage Creek where the prickly pear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bloomed gaudily about the camp. And there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Cheyenne, Black Horse, riding from the south,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came dashing up with sugar in his mouth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To spew on bitter moods. “Come back,” he whined;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Our good white brothers call you, being kind", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And having many gifts to give to those", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who hear them.” But the braves unstrung their bows", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And beat him from the village, counting coup,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While angry squaws reviled the traitor too,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And youngsters dogged him, aping what he said.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the barren Cheyenne watershed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their ponies panted, where the sage brush roots", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bit deep to live. They saw the Pumpkin Buttes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From Dry Fork. Then the Powder led them down", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A day past Lodge Pole Creek.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Here Red Cloud’s town,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With water near and grass enough, now stood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Amid a valley strewn with scrubby wood;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And idling in the lazy autumn air", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The lodge-smoke rose. The only idler there!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For all day long the braves applied their hate", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To scraping dogwood switches smooth and straight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For battle-arrows; and the teeth that bit", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The gnarly shaft, put venom into it", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against the day the snarling shaft should bite.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unceasingly from morning until night", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The squaws toiled that their fighting men might eat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor be less brave because of freezing feet.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By hundreds they were stitching rawhide soles", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To buckskin uppers. Many drying-poles", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Creaked with the recent hunt; and bladders, packed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With suet, fruit and flesh, were being stacked", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For hungers whetted by the driving snow.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fresh robes were tanning in the autumn glow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For warriors camping fireless in the cold.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And noisily the mimic battles rolled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the little children, grim in play.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The village had been growing day by day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Since Red Cloud sent a pipe to plead his cause", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the far-flung Tetons. Hunkpapas,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unhurried by the fear of any foe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were making winter meat along Moreau", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The day the summons came to gird their loins.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Sans Arcs, roving where the Belle Fourche joins", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Big Cheyenne, had smoked the proffered pipe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When grapes were good and plums were getting ripe.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Amid the Niobrara meadowlands", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And up the White, the scattered Brulé bands,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That scorned the talk at Laramie, had heard.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the Black Hills went the pipe and word", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To find the Minneconjoux killing game", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where elk and deer were plentiful and tame", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And clear creeks bellowed from the canyon beds.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still westward where the double Cheyenne heads,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The hunting Ogalalas hearkened too.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So grew the little camp as lakelets do", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When coulees grumble to a lowering sky.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Big names, already like a battle cry,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were common in the town; and there were some", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In which terrific thunders yet were dumb", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But soon should echo fearsome and abhorred:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Crow King, Big Foot, the younger Hump, and Sword,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Black Leg and Black Shield, Touch-the-Cloud and Gall;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And that one fear would trumpet over all⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Young Crazy Horse; and Spotted Tail, the wise;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Red Cloud and Man Afraid, both battle-cries;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rain-in-the-Face, yet dumb; and Sitting Bull.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "’Twas council time, for now the moon was full;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The time when, ere the stars may claim the dark,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A goblin morning with the owl for lark", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Steals in; and ere the flags of day are furled,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pressed white against the window of the world", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A scarred face stares astonished at the sun.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The moonset and the sunrise came as one;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But ere the daybreak lifted by a span", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The frosty dusk, the teepee tops began", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To burgeon, and a faery sapling grove", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stood tall, to bloom in sudden red and mauve", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And gold against the horizontal light.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still humped, remembering the nipping night,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dogs prowled, sniffing, round the open flaps", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where women carved raw haunches in their laps", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To feed the kettles for the council feast.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Amid the silence of the lifting east", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The criers shouted now⁠—old men and sage,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Using the last sad privilege of age", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For brief pathetic triumphs over youth.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Neat saws and bits of hortatory truth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They proffered with the orders of the day.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And names that were as scarlet in the gray", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of pending ill they uttered like a song⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The names of those who, being wise or strong,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Should constitute the council. ’Round and ’round,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The focal centers of a spreading sound,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The criers went. The folk began to fuse", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In groups that seized the latest bit of news", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sputtered with the tongue of fool and seer.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A roaring hailed some chanted name held dear;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or in a silence, no less eloquent,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some other, tainted with suspicion, went", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the people like a wind that blows", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In solitary places.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Day arose", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A spear-length high. The chattering became", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A bated hum; for, conscious of their fame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And clad in gorgeous ceremonial dress,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Fathers of the Council cleft the press", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In lanes that awe ran on before to clear;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And expectation closed the flowing rear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sucked in to where the council bower stood.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Long since the busy squaws had fetched the wood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And lit the council fire, now smouldering.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The great men entered, formed a broken ring", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To open eastward, lest the Light should find", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No entrance, and the leaders of the blind", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "See darkly too. With reverential awe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The people, pressed about the bower, saw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The fathers sit, and every tongue was stilled.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now Red Cloud took the sacred pipe and filled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bowl with fragrant bark, and plucked a brand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To light it. Now with slowly lifted hand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He held it to the glowing sky, and spoke:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Grandfather, I have filled a pipe to smoke,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And you shall smoke it first. In you we trust", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To show good trails.” He held it to the dust.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Grandmother, I have filled a pipe for you,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He said, “and you must keep us strong and true,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For you are so.” Then offering the stem", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To all four winds, he supplicated them", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That they should blow good fortune. Then he smoked;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all the Fathers after him invoked", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Mysteries that baffle Man’s desire.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Some women fetched and set beside the fire", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The steaming kettles, then with groundward gaze", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Withdrew in haste. A man of ancient days,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who searched a timeless dusk with rheumy stare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And saw the ghosts of things that struggle there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before men struggle, now remembered Those", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With might to help. Six bits of meat he chose,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The best the pots afforded him, and these", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He gave in order to the Mysteries,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Sky, the Earth, the Winds, as was their due.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Before I eat, I offer this to you,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He chanted as he gave; “so all men should.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I hope that what I eat may do me good,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And what you eat may help you even so.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I ask you now to make my children grow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To men and women. Keep us healthy still,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And give us many buffalo to kill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And plenty grass for animals to eat.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some youths came forth to parcel out the meat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In order as the councillors were great", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In deeds of worth; and each, before he ate,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Addressed the mystic sources of the good.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The feast now being finished, Red Cloud stood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still pondering his words with mouth set grim;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But men felt thunder in the hush of him", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And knew what lightning struggled to be wise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behind the hawklike brooding of the eyes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The chipped flint look about the cheek and jaw.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The humming of a hustling autumn flaw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In aspen thickets swept the waiting crowd.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It seemed his voice would tower harsh and loud.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It crooned.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“My friends, ’twas many snows ago", "indent": 6 }, { "text": "When first we welcomed white men. Now we know", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their hearts are bad and all their words are lies.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They brought us shining things that pleased the eyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And weapons that were better than we knew.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And this seemed very good. They brought us too", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The spirit water, strong to wash away", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The coward’s fear, and for a moment stay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The creeping of old age and gnawing sorrow.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My friends, if you would have these things tomorrow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forget the way our fathers taught us all.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As though you planned to live till mountains fall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Seek out all things men need and pile them high.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Be fat yourself and let the hungry die;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Be warm yourself and let the naked freeze.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So shall you see the trail the white man sees.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And when your teepee bulges to the peak,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Look round you for some neighbor who is weak", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And take his little too. Dakotas, think!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shall all the white man’s trinkets and his drink,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By which the mind is overcome and drowned,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Be better than our homes and hunting ground,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The guiding wisdom of our old men’s words?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shall we be driven as the white man’s herds", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From grass to bitter grass? When Harney said", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His people, seeking for the yellow lead,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would like an iron trail across our land,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our good old chieftains did not understand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What snake would crawl among us. It would pass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across our country; not a blade of grass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Should wither for that passing, they were told.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And now when scarce the council fire is cold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the Little Piney hear the beat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of axes and the desecrating feet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of soldiers! Are we cowards? Shall we stand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unmoved as trees and see our Mother Land", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Plowed up for corn?”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Increasing as he spoke.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The smothered wrath now mastered him, and ’woke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sleeping thunder all had waited for.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Out of a thrilling hush he shouted: “War!”⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A cry to make an enemy afraid.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The grazing ponies pricked their ears and neighed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Recalling whirlwind charges; and the town", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Roared after like a brush-jam breaking down", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With many waters.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "When the quiet fell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Another rose with phrases chosen well", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To glut the tribal wrath, and took his seat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Amid the crowd’s acclaim. Like chunks of meat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flung bloody to a pack, raw words were said", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By others; and the rabble’s fury, fed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Outgrew the eager feeding. Who would dare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To rise amid the bloodlust raging there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And offer water?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Spotted Tail stood up;", "indent": 9 }, { "text": "And since all knew no blood was in the cup", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That he would give, dumb scorn rejected him.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He gazed afar, and something seen made dim", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wonted quizzic humor of the eyes.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mouth, once terrible with battle-cries,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Took on a bitter droop as he began.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Hey⁠—hey’-hey! So laments an aging man", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who totters and can never more be free", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As once he was. Hey⁠—hey’-hey! So may we", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Exclaim today for what the morrow brings.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There is a time, my brothers, for all things,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And we are getting old. Consider, friends,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How everything begins and grows and ends", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That other things may have their time and grow.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What tribes of deer and elk and buffalo", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Have we ourselves destroyed lest we should die!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About us now you hear the dead leaves sigh;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Since these were green, how few the moons have been!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We share in all this trying to begin,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This trying not to die. Consider well", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The White Man⁠—what you know and what men tell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About his might. His never weary mind", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And busy hands do magic for his kind.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Those things he loves we think of little worth;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yet, behold! he sweeps across the earth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And what shall stop him? Something that is true", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Must help him do the things that he can do,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For lies are not so mighty. Be not stirred", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By thoughts of vengeance and the burning word!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Such things are for the young; but let us give", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Good counsel for the time we have to live,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And seek the better way, as old men should.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He ended; yet a little while he stood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Abashed and lonely, seeing how his words", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had left as little trace as do the birds", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the wide insouciance of air.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He sat at length; and round him crouching there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The hostile silence closed, as waters close", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above the drowned.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then Sitting Bull arose;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And through the stirring crowd a murmur ’woke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As of a river yielding to the stroke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of some deft swimmer. No heroic height", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Proclaimed him peer among the men of might,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor was his bearing such as makes men serve.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bull-torsed, squat-necked, with legs that kept a curve", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To fit the many ponies he had backed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He scarcely pleased the eyes. But what he lacked", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of visible authority to mould", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men’s lives, was compensated manifold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By something penetrating in his gaze", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That searched the rabble, seeming to appraise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The common weakness that should make him strong.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "One certainty about him held the throng⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His hatred of the white men. Otherwise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Conjecture, interweaving truth and lies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wrought various opinions of the man.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A mountebank⁠—so one opinion ran⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A battle-shirking intimate of squaws,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A trivial contriver of applause,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A user of the sacred for the base.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet there was something other in his face", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than vanity and craft. And there were those", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who aw him in that battle with the Crows", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The day he did a thing no coward could.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There ran a slough amid a clump of wood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From whence, at little intervals, there broke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A roaring and a spurt of rifle-smoke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That left another wound among the Sioux.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now Sitting Bull rode down upon the slough", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To see what might be seen there. What he saw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was such as might have gladdened any squaw⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A wounded warrior with an empty gun!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twas then that deed of Sitting Bull was done,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many saw it plainly from the hill.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would any coward shun an easy kill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And lose a scalp? Yet many saw him throw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His loaded rifle over to the Crow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Retreat a space, then wheel to charge anew.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With but a riding quirt he counted coup", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And carried back a bullet in his thigh.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Let those who jeered the story for a lie", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behold him limping yet! And others said", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He had the gift of talking with the dead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And used their clearer seeing to foretell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dark things aright; that he could weave a spell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make a foeman feeble if he would.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Such things the people pondered while he stood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And searched them with a quiet, broad-browed stare.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then suddenly some magic happened there.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Can men grow taller in a breathing span?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He spoke; and even scorners of the man", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were conscious of a swift, disarming thrill,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The impact of a dominating will", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That overcame them.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Brothers, you have seen", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The way the spring sun makes the prairie green", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wakes new life in animal and seed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Preparing plenty for the biggest need,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Remembering the little hungers too.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The same mysterious quickening makes new", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men’s hearts, for by that power we also live.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And so, till now, we thought it good to give", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All life its share of what that power sends", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To man and beast alike. But hear me, friends!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We face a greedy people, weak and small", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When first our fathers met them, now grown tall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And overbearing. Tireless in toil,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "These madmen think it good to till the soil,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And love for endless getting marks them fools.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behold, they bind their poor with many rules", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And let their rich go free! They even steal", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The poor man’s little for the rich man’s weal!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their feeble have a god their strong may flout!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They cut the land in pieces, fencing out", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their neighbors from the mother of all men!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When she is sick, they make her bear again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With medicines they give her with the seed!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All this is sacrilegious! Yet they heed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No word, and like a river in the spring", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They flood the country, sweeping everything", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before them! ’Twas not many snows ago", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They said that we might hunt our buffalo", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In this our land forever. Now they come", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To break that promise. Shall we cower, dumb?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or shall we say: ‘First kill us⁠—here we stand!’ ”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He paused; then stooping to the mother-land,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He scraped a bit of dust and tossed it high.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against the hollow everlasting sky", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All watched it drifting, sifting back again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In utter silence. “So it is with men,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Said Sitting Bull, his voice now low and tense;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“What better time, my friends, for going hence", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than when we have so many foes to kill?”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He ceased. As though they heard him speaking still,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The people listened; for he had a way", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That seemed to mean much more than he could say", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And over all the village cast a spell.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At length some warrior uttered in a yell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The common hate. ’Twas like the lean blue flash", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That stabs a sultry hush before the crash", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of heaven-rending thunder and the loud", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Assault of winds. Then fury took the crowd", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And set it howling with the lust to slay.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The councillors were heard no more that day;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And from the moony hill tops all night long", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wolves gave answer to the battle-song,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And saw their valley hunting-grounds aflare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With roaring fires, and frenzied shadows there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That leaped and sang as wolves do, yet were men.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Long since the column, pushing north again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With Carrington, had left the little post", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On Laramie; unwitting how the ghost", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of many a trooper, lusty yet and gay,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Disconsolately drifting back that way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Should fill unseen the gaps of shattered ranks.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Scarce moved to know what shadows dogged their flanks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till all the winds that blew were talking spies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And draws had ears and every hilltop, eyes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And silence, tongues, the seven hundred went.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How brazenly their insolent intent", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was flaunted! Even wolves might understand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "These men were going forth to wed the land", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And spawn their breed therein. Behold their squaws!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Could such defend the Great White Father’s laws?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So weak they were their warriors hewed the wood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor did they tend the pots, as women should,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor fill them.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Powder River caught the word", "indent": 8 }, { "text": "Of how they swam their long-horned cattle herd", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At Bridger’s Ferry. Big Horn and the Tongue", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beheld through nearer eyes the long line flung", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Up Sage Creek valley; heard through distant ears", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The cracking lashes of the muleteers", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The day the sandy trail grew steep and bleak.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Rosebud saw them crossing Lightning Creek,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whence, southward, cone outsoaring dizzy cone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until the last gleamed splendidly alone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They viewed the peak of Laramie. When, high", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Between the head of North Fork and the Dry", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They lifted Cloud Peak scintillant with snows,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Cheyenne hunters and Arapahoes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far-flung as where the Wind becomes the Horn,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Discussed their progress. Spirits of the morn,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That watched them break the nightly camp and leave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Outwinged the crane to gossip with the eve", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In distant camps. Beyond the Lodge Pole’s mouth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Relentless Red Cloud, poring on the south,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Could see them where the upper Powder ran", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Past Reno Post, and counted to a man", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The soldiers left there. Tattlings of the noon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were bruited by the glimmer of the moon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In lands remote; till, pushing northward yet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Past Crazy Woman’s Fork and Lake DeSmedt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They reached the Big and Little Piney Creeks.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Some such a land the famished hunter seeks", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In fever-dreams of coolness. All day long", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The snow-born waters hummed a little song", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To virgin meadows, till the sun went under;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then tardy freshets in a swoon of thunder,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That deepened with the dark, went rushing by,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As ’twere the Night herself sang lullaby", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till morning. Cottonwoods and evergreens", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made music out of what the silence means", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In timeless solitudes. And over all,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "White towers dizzy on a floating wall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of stainless white, the Big Horn Mountains rose.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Absoraka, the Country of the Crows,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A land men well might fight for!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Here they camped,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rejoicing, man and beast. The work-mule champed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The forage of the elk, and rolled to sate", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His lust for greenness. Like a voice of fate,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Foretelling ruthless years, his blatant bray", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With horns of woe and trumpets of dismay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Crowded the hills. The milk cow and the steer", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In pastures of the bison and the deer", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lowed softly. And the trail-worn troopers went", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About their duties, whistling, well content", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To share this earthly paradise of game.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But scarcely were the tents up, when there came⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was it a sign? One moment it was noon,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A golden peace hypnotic with the tune", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of bugs among the grasses; and the next,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The spacious splendor of the world was vexed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With twilight that estranged familiar things.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A moaning sound, as of enormous wings", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flung wide to bear some swooping bat of death,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Awakened. Hills and valleys held their breath", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To hear that sound. A nervous troop-horse neighed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shrill in the calm. Instinctively afraid,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The cattle bellowed and forgot to graze;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And raucous mules deplored the idle day’s", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Untimely end. Then presently there fell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What seemed a burlesque blizzard out of hell⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A snow of locusts⁠—tawny flakes at strife,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That, driven by a gust of rabid life,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Smothered the windless noon! The lush grass bent,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Devoured in bending. Wagon-top and tent", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sagged with the drift of brown corrosive snow.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Innumerable hungers shrilled below;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A humming fog of hungers hid the sky,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until a cool breath, falling from the high", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "White ramparts, came to cleanse the stricken world.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then suddenly the loud rack lifted, swirled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To eastward; and the golden light returned.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now day by day the prairie people learned", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What wonders happened where the Pineys flowed;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How many wagons rutted out a road", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To where the pines stood tallest to be slain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What medicine the White Man’s hand and brain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had conjured; how they harnessed up a fog", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That sent a round knife screaming through a log", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From end to end; how many adzes hewed;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And how the desecrated solitude", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beheld upon a level creek-side knoll", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rise of fitted bole on shaven bole,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until a great fort brazened out the sun.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And while that builded insolence was done,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far prairies saw the boasting banner flung", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above it, like a hissing adder’s tongue,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To menace every ancientry of good.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Long since and oft the workers in the wood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had felt the presence of a foe concealed.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The drone of mowers in the haying-field", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was silenced often by the rifle’s crack,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The arrow’s whirr; and often, forging back", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With lash and oath along the logging road,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The scared mule-whacker fought behind his load,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His team a kicking tangle. Oft by night", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some hill top wagged a sudden beard of light,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Immediately shorn; and dark hills saw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To glimmer sentient. Hours of drowsy awe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Near dawn had heard the raided cattle bawl,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Afraid of alien herdsmen; bugles call", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To horse; the roaring sally; fleeing cries.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And oft by day upon a distant rise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some naked rider loomed against the glare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With hand at brow to shade a searching stare,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then like a dream dissolved in empty sky.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So men and fate had labored through July", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make a story. August browned the plain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ever Fort Phil Kearney grew amain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With sweat of toil and blood of petty fights.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "September brought the tingling silver nights", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And men worked faster, thinking of the snows.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Aye, more than storm they dreaded. Friendly Crows", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had told wild tales. Had they not ridden through", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Powder River gathering of Sioux?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And lo, at one far end the day was young;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Noon saw the other! Up along the Tongue", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Big villages were dancing! Everywhere", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The buzzing wasp of war was in the air.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "October smouldered goldenly, and gray", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "November sulked and threatened. Day by day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While yet the greater evils held aloof,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The soldiers wrought on wall, stockade and roof", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against the coming wrath of God and Man.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And often where the lonely home-trail ran", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They gazed with longing eyes; nor did they see", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dust cloud of the prayed-for cavalry", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ammunition train long overdue.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By now they saw their forces cut in two,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "First Reno Post upon the Powder, then", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fort Smith upon the Big Horn needing men;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And here the center of the brewing storm", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would rage.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Official suavities kept warm", "indent": 7 }, { "text": "The wire to Laramie⁠—assurance bland", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of peace now reigning in the prairie land;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Attest the treaty signed! So said the mail;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But those who brought it up the Bozeman Trail", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Two hundred miles, could tell of running fights,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of playing tag with Terror in the nights", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To hide by day. If peace was anywhere,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It favored most the growing graveyard there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the Piney under Pilot Hill.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "December opened ominously still,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And scarce the noon could dull the eager fang", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That now the long night whetted. Shod hoofs rang", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On frozen sod. The tenuated whine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sudden shriek of buzz-saws biting pine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were heard far off unnaturally loud.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The six-mule log-teams labored in a cloud;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The drivers beat their breasts with aching hands.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As yet the snow held off; but prowling bands", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grew bolder. Weary night-guards on the walls", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were startled broad awake by wolf-like calls", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From spots of gloom uncomfortably near;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And out across the crystal hemisphere", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Weird yammerings arose and died away", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To dreadful silence. Every sunny day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The looking-glasses glimmered all about.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So, clinging to the darker side of doubt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men took their boots to bed, nor slumbered soon.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "It happened on the sixth December noon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That from a hill commanding many a mile", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The lookout, gazing off to Piney Isle,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beheld the log-train crawling up a draw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still half way out. With naked eye he saw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A lazy serpent reeking in the glare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of wintry sunlight. Nothing else was there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But empty country under empty skies.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then suddenly it seemed a blur of flies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Arose from each adjacent gulch and break", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, swarming inward, swirled about the snake", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That strove to coil amid the stinging mass.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "One moment through the ill-adjusted glass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Vague shadows flitted; then the whirling specks", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were ponies with their riders at their necks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swung low. The lurching wagons spurted smoke;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The teams were plunging.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Frantic signals woke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bugles at the fort, the brawl of men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Obeying “boots and saddles.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Once again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sentry lifts his glass. ’Tis like a dream.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So very near the silent figures seem", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A hand might almost touch them. Here they come", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hell-bent for blood⁠—distorted mouths made dumb", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With distance! One can see the muffled shout,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The twang of bow-thongs! Leaping fog blots out", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The agitated picture⁠—flattens, spreads.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dull rumblings wake and perish. Tossing heads", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Emerge, and ramrods prickle in the rack.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A wheel-mule, sprouting feathers at his back,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rears like a clumsy bird essaying flight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And falls to vicious kicking. Left and right", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Deflected hundreds wheel about and swing", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To charge anew⁠—tempestuous galloping", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On cotton! Empty ponies bolt away", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To turn and stare high-headed on the fray", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With muted snorting at the deeds men do.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But listen how at last a sound breaks through", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The deathly silence of the scene! Hurrah", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For forty troopers roaring down the draw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With Fetterman! A cloud of beaten dust", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sent skurrying before a thunder-gust,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They round the hogback yonder. With a rush", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They pierce the limpid curtain of the hush,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Quiescing in the picture. Hurry, men!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rabid dogs are rushing in again!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Look! Hurry! No, they break midway! They see", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The squadron dashing up. They turn, they flee", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before that pack of terriers⁠—like rats!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yell, yell, you lucky loggers⁠—wave your hats", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thank the Captain that you’ve kept your hair!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Look how they scatter to the northward there,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dissolving into nothing! Ply the spurs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You fire-eaters! Catch that pack of curs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This side the Peno, or they’ll disappear!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Look out! They’re swooping in upon your rear!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wherever did they come from? Look! Good God!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The breaks ahead belch ponies, and the sod", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On every side sprouts warriors!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Holy Spoons!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The raw recruits have funked it! Turn, you loons,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You cowards! Can’t you see the Captain’s game", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To face them with a handful? Shame! O shame!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They’ll rub him out⁠—turn back⁠—that’s not the way", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We did it to the Johnnies many a day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In Dixie! Every mother’s baby rides", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As though it mattered if they saved their hides!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their empty faces gulp the miles ahead.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ride on and live to wish that you were dead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Back yonder where the huddled muskets spit", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against a sea!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now⁠—now you’re in for it!", "indent": 8 }, { "text": "Here comes the Colonel galloping like sin", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Around the hill! Hurrah⁠—they’re falling in⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Good boys! It’s little wonder that you ran.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I’m not ashamed to say to any man", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I might have run.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Ah, what a pretty sight!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Go on, go on and show ’em that you’re white!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They’re breaking now⁠—you’ve got ’em on the run⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They’re scattering! Hurrah!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The fight was done;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No victory to boast about, indeed⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Just labor. Sweat today, tomorrow, bleed⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An incidental difference. And when", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The jaded troopers trotted home again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There wasn’t any cheering. Six of those", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Clung dizzily to bloody saddle-bows;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Bingham was the seventh and was dead;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Bowers, with less hair upon his head", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than arrows in his vitals, prayed to die.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He did that night.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now thirteen days went by", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With neither snow nor foe; and all the while", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The log-trains kept the road to Piney Isle.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Soon all the needed timber would be hauled,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The work be done. Then, snugly roofed and walled,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What need for men to fear? Some came to deem", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The former mood of dread a foolish dream,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grew mellow, thinking of the holidays", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With time for laughter and a merry blaze", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On every hearth and nothing much to do.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As for the bruited power of the Sioux,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who doubted it was overdrawn a mite?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At any rate, they wouldn’t stand and fight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unless the odds were heavy on their side.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It seemed the Colonel hadn’t any pride⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Too cautious. Look at Fetterman and Brown,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who said they’d ride the whole Sioux nation down", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With eighty men; and maybe could, by jing!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Both scrappers⁠—not afraid of anything⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A pair of eagles hungering for wrens!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And what about a flock of butchered hens", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In Peno valley not so long ago", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But for the Colonel? Bowers ought to know;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Go ask him! Thus the less heroic jeered.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "These Redskins didn’t run because they feared;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twas strategy; they didn’t fight our way.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Again it happened on the nineteenth day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The lookout saw the logging-train in grief;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Captain Powell, leading the relief,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Returned without a single scratch to show.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The twentieth brought neither snow nor foe.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The morrow came⁠—a peaceful, scarlet morn.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It seemed the homesick sun in Capricorn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had found new courage for the homeward track", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, yearning out across the zodiac", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To Cancer, brightened with the conjured scene", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of grateful hills and valleys flowing green,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sweet incense rising from the rain-soaked sward,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And color-shouts of welcome to the Lord", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Savior.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Ninety took the logging-road", "indent": 7 }, { "text": "That morning, happy that the final load", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would trundle back that day, and all be well.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But hardly two miles out the foemen fell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon them, swarming three to one. And so", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Once more the hilltop lookout signalled woe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And made the fort a wasp-nest buzzing ire.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The rip and drawl of running musket fire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The muffled, rhythmic uproar of the Sioux", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made plain to all that what there was to do", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Out yonder gave but little time to waste.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A band of horse and infantry soon faced", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Colonel’s quarters, waiting for the word.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above the distant tumult many heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His charge to Powell, leader of the band;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And twice ’twas said that all might understand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The need for caution: “Drive away the foe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And free the wagon-train; but do not go", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Past Lodge Trail Ridge.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A moment’s silence fell;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many in the after-time would dwell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon that moment, little heeded then⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The ghostly horses and the ghostly men,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The white-faced wives, the gaping children’s eyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grown big with wonder and a dread surmise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To see their fathers waiting giant-tall;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That mumbling voice of doom beyond the wall;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The ghastly golden pleasance of the air;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Fetterman, a spectre, striding there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before the Colonel, while the portals yawn.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As vivid as a picture lightning-drawn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the night, that memory would flash,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "More vivid for the swooping backward crash", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of gloom. ’Twas but the hinges of the gates", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That shrieked that moment, while the eager Fates", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Told off the waiting band and gloated: Done!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He asked for eighty⁠—give him eighty-one!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then Fetterman, unwitting how the rim", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of endless outer silence pressed on him", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all his comrades, spoke: “With deference due", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To Captain Powell, Colonel, and to you,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I claim command as senior captain here.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So ever is the gipsy Danger dear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To Courage; so the lusty woo and wed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their dooms, to father in a narrow bed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A song against the prosing after-years.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And now the restive horses prick their ears", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And nicker to the bugle. Fours about,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They rear and wheel to line. The hillsides shout", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Back to the party. Forward! Now it swings", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "High-hearted through the gate of common things", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To where bright hazard, like a stormy moon,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still gleams round Hector, Roland, Sigurd, Fionn;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all the lost, horizon-hungry prows,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Eternal in contemporary nows,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Heave seaward yet.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Colonel mounts the wall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And once again is heard his warning call:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Relieve the wagon-train, but do not go", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Past Lodge Trail Ridge.” And Fetterman, below,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Turns back a shining face on him, and smiles", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the gap that neither years nor miles", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "May compass now.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A little farther still", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They watched him skirt a westward-lying hill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That hid him from the train, to disappear.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“He’ll swing about and strike them in the rear,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The watchers said, “and have the logging crew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For anvil.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now a solitary Sioux", "indent": 6 }, { "text": "Was galloping in circles on a height", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That looked on both the squadron and the fight⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The prairie sign for “many bison seen.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A lucky case-shot swept the summit clean,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And presently the distant firing ceased;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor was there sound or sight of man or beast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Outside for age-long minutes after that.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At length a logger, spurring up the flat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Arrived with words of doubtful cheer to say.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Indians had vanished Peno way;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The train was moving on to Piney Isle.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He had no news of Fetterman.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Meanwhile", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where ran the Bozeman Road along the bleak", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "North slope of Lodge Trail Ridge to Peno Creek,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Big hopes were burning. Silence waited there.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The brown land, even as the high blue air,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Seemed empty. Yet the troubled crows that flew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Keen-eyed above the sunning valley knew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What made the windless slough-grass ripple so,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And how a multitude of eyes below", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were peering southward to the road-scarred rise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where every covert was alive with eyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That scanned the bare horizon to the south.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The white of dawn had seen the Peno’s mouth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A-swarm with men⁠—Cheyennes, Arapahoes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dakotas. When the pale-faced sun arose⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A spectre fleeing from a bath of blood⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It saw them like a thunder-fathered flood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Surge upward through the sounding sloughs and draws⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Afoot and mounted, veterans and squaws,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Youths new to war, the lowly and the great⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A thousand-footed, single-hearted hate", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flung fortward. Now their chanted battle-songs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dismayed the hills. Now silent with their wrongs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They strode, the sullen hum of hoofs and feet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through valleys where aforetime life was sweet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "More terrible than songs or battle cries.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The sun had traversed half the morning skies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When, entering the open flat, they poured", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To where the roadway crossed the Peno ford", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Below the Ridge. Above them wheeled and pried", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The puzzled crows, to learn what thing had died,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What carcass, haply hidden from the ken", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of birds, had lured so large a flock of men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thus chattering with lust. There, brooding doom,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They paused and made the brown December bloom", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With mockeries of August⁠—demon flowers", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And lethal, thirsting for the sanguine showers", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That soon should soak the unbegetting fields⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The trailing bonnets and the pictured shields,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The lances nodding in the warwind’s breath,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And faces brave with paint to outstare Death", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In some swift hush of battle!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Briefly so", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They parleyed. Then the spears began to flow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On either side the Ridge⁠—a double stream", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of horsemen, winking out as in a dream", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "High up among the breaks that flanked the trail.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Amid the tall dry grasses of the vale", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The footmen disappeared; and all the place", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was still and empty as a dead man’s face", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That sees unmoved the wheeling birds of prey.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The anxious moments crawled. Then far away", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the hills a muffled tumult grew,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As of a blanket being ripped in two", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many people shouting underground.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The valley grasses rippled to the sound", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As though it were a gusty wind that passed.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Far off a bugle’s singing braved the vast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And perished in a wail.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The tall grass stirred.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The rumor of the distant fight was heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A little longer. Suddenly it stopped;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And silence, like a sky-wide blanket, dropped", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the landscape empty as the moon.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The sun, now scarce a lance-length from the noon,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Seemed waiting for whatever might occur.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the far Northwest a purplish blur", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had gathered and was crawling up the sky.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now presently a nearer bugle cry", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Defied the hush⁠—a scarlet flower of sound", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That sowed the sterile silences around", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With futile seed of music.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Once again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sound of firing and the cries of men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Arose; but now ’twas just beyond the place", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where, climbing to the azure rim of space,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The roadway topped the Ridge and disappeared.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The tongueless coverts listened, thousand-eared,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And heard hoof-thunders rumbling over there.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then suddenly the high blue strip of air", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was belching warriors in a wind of cries.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In breakneck rout they tumbled from the skies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wheeled round to fling more arrows at a foe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fled to where the breast-deep grass below", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swayed wildly.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now a crow-black stallion ’rose,", "indent": 8 }, { "text": "And looming huge against the blue noon doze,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Raced back and forth across the Ridge’s rim,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While, shooting from beneath the neck of him,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Cheyenne Big Nose held the roaring rear;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor did the snarling musket-balls come near,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So mighty was his medicine, they say.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now presently the high blue wall of day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spewed cavalry along the Ridge; and then", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A marvel for the tongues and ears of men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Amazed the hidden watchers of the height.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For like a thunder-stridden wind of night", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That rages through a touselled poplar grove,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rider of the stallion charged, and drove", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Straight through the middle of the mounted crowd.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men saw his bonnet tossing in a cloud", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of manes and tails; and sabre lightnings played", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About it. Then, emerging undismayed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He charged back through and galloped down the hill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With bullets that were impotent to kill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spat-pinging all around.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The firing ceased.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The fugitives were half a mile at least", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beyond the Peno ford. There, circling wide", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With bows and lances brandished, they defied", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The foe to come and fight with them. By now", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The infantry had crossed the Ridge’s brow.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It joined the troop a little way below;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then all together, cautiously and slow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came down the hated road. And silence lay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On summit, slope and valley, deep as day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And doomful, as they came. The flat could hear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The murmur of the straining saddle-gear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The shuffling feet, the clinking of the bits;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And when a nervous troop-horse neighed by fits,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The ponies, lurking in the broken lands", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That flanked the Ridge, kept silence for the hands", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That gripped their nostrils.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now the eighty-one", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were half way down the hill. The nooning sun", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Slipped fearfully behind a flying veil,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And from the gray northwest a raw-cold gale", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came booming up. The fugitive decoys,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Off yonder in the flat, like playing boys", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Divided now and waged a mimic fight.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Immediately half way up the height", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the breaks appeared a warrior’s torse.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A thousand hidden eyes knew Little Horse,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Cheyenne chieftain; saw him wave a spear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Left-handed; pass it round him in the rear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To seize it with the right.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The whole flat swarmed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With footmen. Mounted warriors thunder-stormed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By hundreds from the breaks above; and one", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came dashing down the ridge-road at a run", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And plunged among the soldiery to die", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beneath the frantic sabres. With a cry", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That set the horses wild, the swarm closed in.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The cavalry, as hoping yet to win", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The summit of the Ridge, wheeled round and hewed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A slow way upward through the solitude", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of lances, howling in the arrow-storm.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rest, already circled by the swarm,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Took cover in a patch of tumbled rock", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where, huddled like a blizzard-beaten flock,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They faced the swirling death they could not stem.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A little while before it smothered them", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dwindling few toiled mightily, men say,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With gun-butts swinging in the dim melee", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of battle-clubs and lances; then were still.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The wave broke over, surging up the hill;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For yonder yet the battle smoked and roared", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where, midway ’twixt the summit and the ford,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The little band of troopers held the height⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Green manhood withering in a locust flight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of arrows! Aye, a gloaming of despair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The shuttling arrows wove above them there,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So many were the bows. Cheyenne and Sioux", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went down beneath the shafts their brothers drew;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Arapahoes struck down Arapahoes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unwittingly. And many a red gout froze", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the slopes, so keen had grown the gale.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A little while those makers of a tale", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gave battle like a badger in a hole;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor could the ponies charge the narrow knoll,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For either slope was steep and gully-scrawled.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still up and up the cautious bowmen crawled,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And still the troopers overawed the field.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then presently, men say, a white chief reeled;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rolled from his saddle; like a man gone daft", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Got up and doddered, tugging at a shaft", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That sprouted from his belly. Then a yell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of many bowmen mocked him as he fell,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His writhing body feathered like a goose.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The troops began to turn their horses loose,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Retreating up the ridge, a hopeless crowd.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A lull of battle thinned the arrow-cloud", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above them; for the mounted warriors knew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The soldiers doomed whatever they might do,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fell to rounding up the runaways.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Meanwhile the broken troopers in a daze", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of desperation scrambled up the slope.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Strewn boulders yonder woke a lying hope,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there they waited, living, in their grave.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The horse-chase ended. Once again the wave", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Began to mount the steep on either side,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While warriors hailed their fellows and replied:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Be ready!⁠—We are ready, brothers!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The hillsides bellowed with a surf of men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flung crowding on the boulders. ’Twas the end.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Some trooper’s wolfhound, mourning for his friend,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Loped fortward, pausing now and then to cry", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His urgent question to the hostile sky", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That spat a stinging frost. And someone said:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Let yonder dog bear tidings of the dead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make the white men tremble over there.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“No, teach them that we do not even spare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their dogs!” another said. An arrow sang", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shrill to the mark. The wolfhound yelped and sprang,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Snapped at the feather, wilted, and was still.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And so they perished on that barren hill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beside the Peno. And the Winter strode", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Numb-footed down that bloody stretch of road", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At twilight, when a squadron came to read", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The corpse-writ rune of battle, deed by deed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Between the Ridge’s summit and the ford.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The blizzard broke at dusk. All night it roared", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Round Fort Phil Kearney mourning for the slain.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Besieging January made the plain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "One vast white camp to reinforce the foe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That watched the fort. Mad cavalries of snow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Assaulted; stubborn infantries of cold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sat round the walls and waited. Wolves grew bold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To peer by night across the high stockade", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where, builded for the Winter’s escalade,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The hard drifts leaned. And often in the deep", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of night men started from a troubled sleep", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To think the guards were fighting on the wall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, roaring over like a waterfall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wild hordes pouring in upon the lost.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But ’twas the timber popping in the frost,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mourning wolves. Nor did the dawn bring cheer.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Becandled like a corpse upon a bier", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The lifeless sun, from gloom to early gloom,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stole past⁠—a white procession to a tomb", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Illumining the general despair.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Meanwhile Omniscience in a swivel chair,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unmenaced half a continent away,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Amid more pressing matters of the day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had edited the saga of the dead.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Compare the treaty where it plainly said", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There was no war! All duly signed and sealed!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Undoubtedly the evidence revealed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The need of an official reprimand.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wherefore stern orders ticked across the land", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From Washington to Laramie. Perhaps", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No blizzard swept the neat official maps", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To nip a tracing finger. Howsoe’er,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Four companies of horse and foot must bear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To Fort Phil Kearney tidings of its shame.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through ten score miles of frozen hell they came⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Frost-bitten, wolfish⁠—with the iron word", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Carrington dishonored and transferred", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To Reno Post. The morning that he went,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sun was like a sick man in a tent,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Crouched shivering between two feeble fires.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far off men heard his griding wagon tires", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shriek fife-like in the unofficial snow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His floundering three-span mule-teams blaring woe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the blue-cold waste; and he was gone.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Without a thaw the bitter spell wore on", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To raging February. Days on days", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men could not see beyond the whirling haze", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That made the fort’s the world’s wall fronting sheer", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On chaos. When at times the sky would clear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And like a frozen bubble were the nights,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pale rainbows jigged across the polar heights", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And leafy rustlings mocked the solitude.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men sickened with the stale and salty food,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For squadrons hunt at best with ill success;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And quiet days revealed the wilderness", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Alert with fires, so doggedly the foe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Guarded the deer and elk and buffalo", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That roamed the foothills where the grass was good.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A battle often bought a load of wood;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And arrows swept the opening water-gate", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From where the wily bowmen lurked in wait", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the brush-clad Piney.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "March went past,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A lion, crouched or raging, to the last;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And it was April⁠—in the almanac.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No maiden with the southwind at her back", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ran crocus-footed up the Bozeman Road.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A loveless vixen swept her drear abode", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With brooms of whimsic wrath, and scolded shrill.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men pined to think of how the whippoorwill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Broidered the moony silences at home.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There now a mist-like green began to roam", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The naked forest hillward from the draws;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dogwood’s bloom was vying with the haw’s;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The redbud made a bonfire of its boughs.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there, perchance, one lying in a drowse", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At midnight heard the friendly thunder crash,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The violet-begetting downpour lash", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The flaring panes; and possibly one heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sudden rapture of a mocking bird", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Defy the lightning in a pitch-black lull.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Here dull days wore the teeth of Winter dull.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Drifts withered slowly. Of an afternoon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The gulches grumbled hoarsely, ceasing soon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When sunset faded out. The pasque flower broke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The softened sod, and in a furry cloak", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And airy bonnet brazened out the chill.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The long grave yonder under Pilot Hill,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where eighty lay, was like a wound unwrapped.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The cottonwoods, awaking sluggish-sapped,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Prepared for spring with wavering belief.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "May stole along the Piney like a thief.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And yet, another sun made summer now", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In wild hearts given glebe-like to the plow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of triumph. So miraculously fed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With slaughter, richly seeded with the dead,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The many-fielded harvest throve as one.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And Red Cloud was the summer and the sun.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "In many a camp, in three great tribal tongues,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That magic name was thunder in the lungs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of warriors. Swift, apocalyptic light,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It smote the zenith of the Red Man’s night", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With dazzling vision. Forts dissolved in smoke,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The hated roadway lifted, drifted, broke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And was a dust; the white men were a tale;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The green, clean prairie bellowed, hill and vale,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With fatted bison; and the good old days", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came rushing back in one resistless blaze", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of morning!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "It was good to be a youth", "indent": 7 }, { "text": "That season when all dreaming was the truth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And miracle familiar! Waning May", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Could hear the young men singing on the way", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To Red Cloud. Pious sons and rakehell scamps,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unbroken colts, the scandals of their camps,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And big-eyed dreamers never tried by strife,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "One-hearted with the same wild surge of life,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sang merrily of dying as they came.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Aloof amid his solitude of fame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The battle-brooding chieftain heard, to dream", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of great hordes raging like a flooded stream", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From Powder River to the Greasy Grass,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That never after might a wagon pass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along that hated highway of deceit.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The meadows of Absoraka grew sweet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With nursing June. War-ponies, winter-thin,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nuzzled the dugs of ancient might therein", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against the day of victory. July", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Poured virile ardor from a ruthless sky", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make stern forage⁠—that the hardened herds", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Might speed as arrows, wheel and veer as birds,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Have smashing force and never lack for breath,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Be fit for bearing heroes to their death", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In that great day now drawing near.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Meanwhile", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Once more the solitude of Piney Isle", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was startled with a brawl of mules and men.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Long Knives’ wagons clattered there again;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The axes bit and rang, saws whined and gnawed;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And mountain valleys wakened to applaud", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mighty in their downfall, meanly slain.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now close to Piney Isle there lay a plain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some three long bow-shots wide. Good grazing land", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It was, and empty as a beggar’s hand.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Low foothills squatted round with bended knees,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And standing mountains waited back of these", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To witness what the hunkered hills might view.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They saw a broad arena roofed with blue", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That first of August. Where the mid-plain raised", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A little knoll, the yellow swelter blazed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On fourteen wagon-beds set oval-wise⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A small corral to hold the camp supplies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flour, salt, beans, ammunition, grain in sacks.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Therein, forestalling sudden night attacks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mules were tethered when the gloaming starred", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The laggard evening. Soldiers, sent to guard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The logging crew, had pitched their tents around.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all of this was like a feeble sound", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lost in the golden fanfare of the day.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the Piney Fork, a mile away,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unseen among the pines, the work-camp stood;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And trundling thence with loads of winter wood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stript wagon-trucks creaked fortward.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Twilight awe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the pines now silenced axe and saw.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With jingling traces, eager for their grain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the creek and up the gloaming plain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The work mules came, hee-hawing at the glow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of fires among the tents. The day burned low", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To moonless dusk. The squat hills seemed to lift,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Expectant. Peaks on shadow-seas adrift,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went voyaging where lonely wraiths of cloud", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Haunted the starry hushes. Bugs grew loud", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the grasses; cynic owls laughed shrill;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men slept. But all night long the wolves were still,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Aware of watchers in the outer dark.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And now and then a sentry’s dog would bark,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rush snarling where it seemed that nothing stirred.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But those who listened for a war-cry, heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The skirling bugs, the jeering owls, the deep", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Discordant snoring of the men asleep", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon their guns, mules blowing in the hay.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "At last the blanching summits saw the day.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A drowsy drummer spread the news of morn.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mules began to nicker for their corn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wrangle with a laying back of ears.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among them went the surly muleteers,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dispensing feed and sulphurous remarks.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The harness rattled, and the meadow larks", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Set dawn to melody. A sergeant cried", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The names of heroes. Common men replied,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sing-songing down the line. The squat hills heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To seize and gossip with the running word⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here! Here! Here! Coffee steaming in the pot,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Woodsmoke and slabs of bacon, sizzling hot,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were very good to smell. The cook cried “chuck!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And when the yellow flood of sunrise struck", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The little prairie camp, it fell on men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who ate as though they might not eat again.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some wouldn’t, for the day of wrath arose.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yet, but for a cruising flock of crows,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The basking world seemed empty.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now the sun", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was two hours high. The axes had begun", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the Piney yonder. Drowsy draws", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Snored with the lagging echoes of the saws.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The day swooned windless, indolently meek.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It happened that the pickets by the creek", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were shaken from a doze by rhythmic cries", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And drumming hoofs. Against the western skies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Already well within a half a mile,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came seven Indians riding single file,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their wiry ponies flattened to the quirt.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A sentry’s Springfield roared, and hills, alert", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With echoes, fired a ghostly enfillade.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The ball fell short, bit dust and ricocheted.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The foremost pony, smitten in the breast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went down amid the rearing of the rest", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And floundered to a dusty somersault.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unhurt, the tumbled brave emerged to vault", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behind a comrade; and the seven veered", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To southward, circling round the spot they feared", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where three far-stinging human hornets stood.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now one of these went running to the wood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To see what made the logging camp so still.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Short breath sufficed to tell the tale of ill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He brought⁠—the whole crew making off in stealth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And going to the mountains for their health,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mules stampeded!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Things were looking blue.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With shaking knees, uncertain what to do,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The pickets waited. Whisperings of death", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Woke round them, and they felt the gusty breath", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of shafts that plunked and quivered in the sod.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As though men sprouted where the ponies trod,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The circling band now jeered them, ten to one.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They scanned the main camp swinking in the sun.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No signal to return! But all the men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were rushing round there, staring now and then", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To where the foothills, northward, broke the flat.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A pointing sentry shouted: “Look at that!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Good God! There must be thousands over there!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Massed black against the dazzle of the air,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They made the hilltops crawlingly alive⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The viscid boiling over of a hive", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That feels the pale green burning of the spring.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Slow-moving, with a phasic murmuring", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As of a giant swarm gone honey-wild,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They took the slope; and still the black rear piled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wriggling ridges. What could bar the way?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dwarfed in the panorama of the day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The camp was but a speck upon the plain.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And three remembered eighty lying slain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beside a ford, and how the Winter strode", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Numb-footed down a bloody stretch of road", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across strange faces lately known and dear.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“I guess we’d better hustle out of here,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sergeant said. To left, to right, in front,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like starving kiotes singing to the hunt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet overcautious for a close attack,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Scores pressed the fighting trio, falling back", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the Piney campward. One would pause", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To hold the rear against the arrow-flaws,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The pelting terror, while the two ran past;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then once again the first would be the last,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The second, first. And still the shuttling hoofs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wove closelier with gaudy warps and woofs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The net of death; for still from brush and break", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Piney, like a pregnant water snake,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spewed venomous broods.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So fleeing up the slope", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The pickets battled for the bitter hope", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of dying with their friends. And there was one", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who left the wagon boxes at a run", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, dashing past the now exhausted three,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Knelt down to rest his rifle on his knee", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And coolly started perforating hides.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bare ponies, dragging warriors at their sides", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And kicking at the unfamiliar weight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Approved his aim. The weaving net of hate", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went loose, swung wide to southward.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So at last", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They reached the camp where, silent and aghast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The men stood round and stared with haunted eyes.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis said a man sees much before he dies.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were these not dying? O the eighty-one", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bestrewn down Lodge Trail Ridge to Peno Run", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That blizzard evening! Here were thirty-two!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And no one broached what everybody knew⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The tale there’d be and maybe none to tell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But glutted crows and kiotes. Such a spell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As fastens on a sick room gripped the crowd⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When tick by tick the doctor’s watch is loud,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With hours between. And like the sound of leaves", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through which a night-wind ominously grieves,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The murmur of that moving mass of men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To northward rose and fell and rose again,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "More drowsing music than a waking noise.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And Captain Powell spoke: “Get ready, boys;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Take places; see their eyes, then shoot to kill.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Some crouched behind the boxes, staring still", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like men enchanted. Others, seeming fain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To feel more keenly all that might remain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of ebbing life, paced nervously about.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "One fortified the better side of doubt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With yokes of oxen. That was Tommy Doyle.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Alas, the total profit of his toil", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would be a hot slug crunching through his skull!)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Littman yonder, grunting in the lull,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Arranged a keg of salt to fight behind;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While Condon, having other things in mind", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than dying, wrestled with a barrel of beans.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And others planned escape by grimmer means.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Old Robertson, with nothing in his face,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unlaced a boot and noosed the leather lace", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To reach between a trigger and a toe.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He did not tell, and no one asked to know", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The meaning of it. Everybody knew.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "John Grady and McQuarie did it too,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Haggirty and Gibson did the same,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many others. When the finish came,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At least there’d be no torturing for them.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now as a hail-cloud, fraying at the hem,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hurls ragged feelers to the windless void,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The nearing mass broke vanward and deployed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To left and right⁠—a dizzy, flying blear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Reek of a hell-pot boiling in the rear.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And now, as when the menaced world goes strange", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And cyclone sling-shots, feeling out the range,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spatter the waiting land agape with drouth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The few first arrows fell. Once more the south", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was humming with a wind of mounted men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That wove the broken net of death again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the creek and up the campward rise.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then suddenly, with wolfish battle-cries", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And death-songs like the onset of a gale", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And arrows pelting like a burst of hail,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The living tempest broke. There was no plain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Just headgear bobbing in a toss of mane,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And horses, horses, horses plunging under.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Paunch-deep in dust and thousand-footed thunder,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That vertigo of terror swarmed and swirled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About the one still spot in all the world⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The hushed cyclonic heart. Then that was loud!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The boxes bellowed, and a spurting cloud", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made twilight where the flimsy fortress stood;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And flying splinters from the smitten wood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And criss-cross arrows pricked the drifting haze.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not now, as in the recent musket days,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The foe might brave two volleys for a rush", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the soldiers, helpless in a hush", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of loading. Lo, like rifles in a dream", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The breech-fed Springfields poured a steady stream", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That withered men and horses roaring in!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And gut-shot ponies screamed above the din;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many a wounded warrior, under-trod", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But silent, wallowed on the bloody sod⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Man piled on man and horses on the men!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "They broke and scattered. Would they come again?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Abruptly so the muted hail-storm leaves", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Astonished silence, when the dripping eaves", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Count seconds for the havoc yet to come.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Weird in the hush, a melancholy hum,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From where the watching women of the Sioux", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thronged black along the circling summits, grew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fell and grew⁠—the mourning for the dead.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "One whispered hoarsely from a wagon-bed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Is anybody hit?” But none replied.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Awe-struck at what they did and hollow-eyed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All watched and waited for the end of things.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then even as the fleeing hail-cloud swings", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before some freakish veering of the gale,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Returning down its desolated trail", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With doubled wrath, the howling horsemen came.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Right down upon the ring of spurting flame", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The quirted ponies thundered; reared, afraid", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of that bad medicine the white men made,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, screaming, bolted off with flattened ears.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So close the bolder pressed, that clubs and spears", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were hurled against the ring.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Again they broke,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To come again. Now flashing through the smoke,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like lightning to the battle’s thunder-shocks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ignited arrows, streaming to the nocks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fell hissing where the fighting soldiers lay;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And flame went leaping through the scattered hay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To set the dry mule-litter smouldering.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Half suffocated, coughing with the sting", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of acrid air, like scythemen in a field", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The soldiers mowed. And gaudy man-flower reeled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To wriggling swaths. And still the mad Sioux fought", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To break this magic that the white men wrought⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Heroic flesh at grapple with a god.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then noon was glaring on the bloody sod;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And broken clouds of horsemen down the plain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went scudding; hundreds, heavy with the slain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wounded, lagging in the panic rout.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Again the ridges murmured round about", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where wailed the wives and mothers of the Sioux.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some soldier whispered, asking for a chew,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As though he feared dread sleepers might arise.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Young Tommy Doyle with blood upon his eyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gaped noonward and his fighting jaw sagged loose.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hank Haggirty would never need a noose", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To reach between a trigger and a toe.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Jenness would never hear a bugle blow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Again, so well he slept. Around the ring", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men passed the grisly gossip, whispering⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As though doomed flesh were putting on the ghost.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A sound grew up as of a moving host.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It seemed to issue from a deep ravine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To westward. There no enemy was seen.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A freak gust, gotten of a sultry hush,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "May mumble thus among the distant brush", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some moments ere a dampened finger cools.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But still the smudgy litter of the mules", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Plumed straight against the dazzle of the day.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon a hilltop half a mile away", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To eastward. Red Cloud presently appeared", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among his chieftains, gazing where the weird", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Susurrus swelled and deepened in the west;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And to and from him dashed along the crest", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fleet heralds of some new-begotten hope.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Once more the Piney spread along the slope", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A dizzy ruck of charging horse. They broke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before those stingers in a nest of smoke,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fled back across the creek, and waited there.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For what?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The voice of it was everywhere⁠—", "indent": 6 }, { "text": "A bruit of waters fretting at a weir.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The woman-peopled summits hushed to hear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That marching sound.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then suddenly a roar,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As from the bursting open of a door,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swept out across the plain; and hundreds, pressed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By hundreds crowding yonder from the west,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Afoot and naked, issued like a wedge,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With Red Cloud’s nephew for the splitting edge,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A tribe’s hot heart behind him for a maul.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Slow, ponderously slow, the V-shaped wall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bore down upon the camp. The whirlwind pace", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of horsemen seemed less terrible to face", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than such a leisure. Brave men held their breath", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before that garish masquerade of Death", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Aflaunt with scarlets, yellows, blues and greens.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then Condon there behind his barrel of beans,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Foreseeing doom, afraid to be afraid,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sprang up and waved his rifle and essayed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Homeric speech according to his lights.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Come on!” he yelled, “ye dairty blatherskites,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ye blitherin’ ijuts! We kin lick yez all,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ye low-down naygurs!” Shafts began to fall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About him raging. Scattered muskets roared", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the fraying fringes of the horde.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Get down there, Jim!” men shouted. “Down!” But Jim", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Told Death, the blackguard, what he thought of him", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For once and all.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Again the Springfields crashed;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And where the heavy bullets raked and smashed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The solid front and bored the jostling mass,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men withered down like flame-struck prairie grass;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But still the raging hundreds forged ahead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pell mell across their wounded and their dead,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like tumblebugs. The splitting edge went blunt.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A momentary eddy at the front", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sucked down the stricken chief. The heavy rear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With rage more mighty than the vanward fear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thrust forward. Twenty paces more, and then⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twould be like drowning in a flood of men.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Already through the rifts one saw their eyes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Teeth flashing in the yawn of battle-cries,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sweat-sleek muscles straining at the bows.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Forgotten were the nooses for the toes.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tomorrows died and yesterdays were naught.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sleep-walkers in a foggy nowhere fought", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With shadows. So forever from the first,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forever so until this dream should burst", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Its thin-blown bubble of a world. And then,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The shadows were a howling mass of men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hurled, heavy with their losses, down the plain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before that thunder-spew of death and pain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That followed till the last had disappeared.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The hush appalled; and when the smoke had cleared,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men eyed each other with a sense of shock", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At being still alive.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "’Twas one o’clock!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "One spoke of water. Impishly the word", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went round the oval, mocking those who heard.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The riddled barrel had bled from every stave;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And what the sun-stewed coffee-kettles gave", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Seemed scarcely wet. Off yonder on the hill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among his chieftains Red Cloud waited still⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A tomcat lusting for a nest of mice.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How often could these twenty-nine suffice", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To check his thousands? Someone raised a sight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And cursed, and fell to potting at the height;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then others. Red Cloud faded into air.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "What fatal mischief was he brewing there?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What ailed the Fort? It seemed beyond belief", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That Wessels yonder wouldn’t send relief!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The hush bred morbid fancies. Battle-cries", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were better than this buzzing of the flies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About Jenness and Haggirty and Doyle.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wounds ached and smarted. Shaken films of oil", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Troubled the yellow dazzle of the grass.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bended heavens were a burning glass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Malevolently focused. Minutes crawled.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men gnawed their hearts in silence where they sprawled,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each in the puddle of his own blue shade.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But hear! Was that a howitzer that bayed?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Look! Yonder from behind the eastward steep", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Excited warriors, like a flock of sheep", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That hear the wolves, throng down the creekward slope", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And flee along the Piney!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Slow to hope,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men searched each other’s faces, silent still.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A case-shot, bursting yonder on the hill,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sent dogging echoes up the foe-choked draws.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And far hills heard the leather-lunged hurrahs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And answered, when the long blue skirmish line", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swept down the hill to join the twenty-nine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Knee-deep in standing arrows.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Summer turned.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where blackbirds chattered and the scrub oaks burned", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In meadows of the Milk and Musselshell,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The fatted bison sniffed the winter-smell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beneath the whetted stars, and drifted south.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the Yellowstone, lean-ribbed with drouth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The living rivers bellowed, morn to morn.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Powder and the Rosebud and the Horn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flowed backward freshets, roaring to their heads.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now up across the Cheyenne watersheds", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The manless cattle wrangled day and night.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the Niobrara and the White", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Uncounted thirsts were slaked. The peace that broods", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Aloof among the sandhill solitudes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fled from the bawling bulls and lowing cows.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the triple Loup they paused to browse", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And left the lush sloughs bare. Along the Platte", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The troubled myriads pawed the sandy flat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And snorted at the evil men had done.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For there, from morning sun to evening sun,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A strange trail cleft the ancient bison world,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many-footed monsters whirred and whirled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon it; many-eyed they blinked, and screamed;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tempestuous with speed, the long mane streamed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behind them; and the breath of them was loud⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A rainless cloud with lightning in the cloud", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And alien thunder. Thus the driving breed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bold earth-takers, toiled to make the deed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Audacious as the dream. One season saw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The steel trail crawl away from Omaha", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As far as ox-rigs waddled in a day⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An inchworm bound for San Francisco Bay!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The next beheld a brawling, sweating host", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of men and mules build on to Kearney Post", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While spring greens mellowed into winter browns,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And prairie dogs were giving up their towns", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To roaring cities. Where the Platte divides,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The metal serpent sped, with league-long strides,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Between two winters. North Platte City sprang", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From sage brush where the prairie sirens sang", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of magic bargains in the marts of lust;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A younger Julesburg sprouted from the dust", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To howl a season at the panting trains;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cheyenne, begotten of the ravished plains,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All-hailed the planet as the steel clanged by.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And now in frosty vacancies of sky", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rail-head waited spring on Sherman Hill,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, brooding further prodigies of will,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Blinked off at China. So the man-stream flowed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Full flood beyond the Powder River road⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A cow path, hardly worth the fighting for.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then let grass grow upon the trails of war,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bad hearts be good and all suspicion cease!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beside the Laramie the pipe of peace", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Awaited; let the chieftains come and smoke!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "’Twas summer when the Great White Father spoke.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A thousand miles of dying summer heard;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And nights were frosty when the crane-winged word", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Found Red Cloud on the Powder loath to yield.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The crop from that rich seeding of the field", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the Piney flourished greenly still.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wail of many women on a hill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was louder than the word. And once again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He saw that blizzard of his fighting men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Avail as snow against the August heat.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Go tell them I am making winter meat;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No time for talk,” he said; and that was all.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Northwind snuffed the torches of the fall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And drearily the frozen moons dragged past.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then when the pasque-flower dared to bloom at last", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And resurrected waters hailed the geese,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It happened that the flying word of peace", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came north again. The music that it made", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was sweet to Spotted Tail, and Man Afraid", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gave ear, bewitched. One Horn and Little Chief", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Believed; and Two Bears ventured on belief,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And others who were powers in the land.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For here was something plain to understand:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As long as grass should grow and water flow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Between Missouri River and the snow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That never melts upon the Big Horn heights,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The country would be closed to all the Whites.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So ran the song that lured the mighty south.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It left a bitter taste in Red Cloud’s mouth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No music in his ears. “Go back and say", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That they can take their soldier-towns away", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From Piney Fork and Crazy Woman’s Creek", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Greasy Grass. Then maybe I will speak.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Great Spirit gave me all this country here.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They have no land to give.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The hills went sere", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the Powder; and the summer grew.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "June knew not what the white men meant to do;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor did July. The end of August came.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bullberries quickened into jets of flame", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where smoky bushes smouldered by the creeks.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grapes purpled and the plums got rosy cheeks.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The nights were like a watching mother, yet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A chill as of incipient regret", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Foretold the winter when the twilight fell.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twas then a story wonderful to tell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went forth at last. In every wind it blew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till all the far-flung bison hunters knew;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Red Cloud’s name and glory filled the tale.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The soldier-towns along the hated trail", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were smoke, and all the wagons and the men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were dust blown south! Old times had come again.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unscared, the fatted elk and deer would roam", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their pastures now, the bison know their home", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And flourish there forever unafraid.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So when the victor’s winter-meat was made", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all his lodges ready for the cold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He listened to the word, now twelve moons old,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rode south and made his sign and had his will.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Meanwhile the road along the Smoky Hill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was troubled. Hunters, drifting with the herd", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The fall before, had scattered wide the word", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Red Cloud’s victory. “Look north,” they said;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“The white men made a road there. It is red", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With their own blood, and now they whine for peace!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The brave tale travelled southward with the geese,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor dwindled on the way, nor lacked applause.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Comanches, South Cheyennes and Kiowas,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Apaches and the South Arapahoes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were glad to hear. Satanta, Roman Nose,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Black Kettle, Little Raven heard⁠—and thought.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Around their winter fires the warriors fought", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Those far-famed battles of the North again.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their hearts grew strong. “We, too,” they said, “are men;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And what men did up yonder, we can do.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Make red the road along the Smoky too,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And grass shall cover it!”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So when the spring", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was fetlock-deep, wild news ran shuddering", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through Kansas: women captured, homes ablaze,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men slaughtered in the country north of Hays", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Harker! Terror stalking Denver way!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Trains burned along the road to Santa Fe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The drivers scalped and given to the flames!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All summer Panic babbled demon names.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No gloom but harbored Roman Nose, the Bat.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Satanta, like an omnipresent cat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Moused every heart. Out yonder, over there,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Black Kettle, Turkey Leg were everywhere.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Little Raven was the night owl’s croon,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The watch-dog’s bark. The setting of the moon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was Little Rock; the dew before the dawn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A sweat of horror!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "All that summer, drawn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By vague reports and captive women’s wails,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The cavalry pursued dissolving trails⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And found the hotwind. Loath to risk a fight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fleas in the day and tigers in the night,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wild bands struck and fled to strike anew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And drop the curtain of the empty blue", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behind them, passing like the wrath of God.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The failing year had lit the goldenrod", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against the tingling nights, now well begun;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sunflowers strove to hoard the paling sun", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For winter cheer; and leagues of prairie glowed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With summer’s dying flare, when fifty rode", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From Wallace northward, trailing Roman Nose,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mad Cheyenne. A motley band were those⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Scouts, hunters, captains, colonels, brigadiers;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wild lads who found adventure in arrears,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And men of beard whom Danger’s lure made young⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The drift and wreckage of the great war, flung", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the brawling border. Two and two,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The victor and the vanquished, gray and blue,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rode out across the Kansas plains together,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hearts singing to the croon of saddle leather", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And jingling spurs. The buffalo, at graze", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like dairy cattle, hardly deigned to raise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their shaggy heads and watch the horsemen pass.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like bursting case-shot, clumps of bluejoint grass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Exploded round them, hurtling grouse and quail", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And plover. Wild hens drummed along the trail", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At twilight; and the antelope and deer,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Moved more by curiosity than fear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went trotting off to pause and gaze their fill.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Past Short Nose and the Beaver, jogging still,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They followed hot upon a trail that shrank", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At every tangent draw. Their horses drank", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The autumn-lean Republican and crossed;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there at last the dwindled trail was lost", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where sandhills smoked against a windy sky.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Perplexed and grumbling, disinclined to try", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The upper reaches of the stream, they pressed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behind Forsyth, their leader, pricking west", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With Beecher there beside him in the van.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They might have disobeyed a lesser man;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For what availed another wild goose chase,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Foredoomed to end some God-forsaken place", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With twilight dying on the prairie rim?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But Fame had blown a trumpet over him;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And men recalled that Shenandoah ride", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With Sheridan, the stemming of the tide", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of rabble armies wrecked at Cedar Creek,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When thirty thousand hearts, no longer weak,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were made one victor’s heart.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And so the band", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pushed westward up the lonely river land", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Four saddle days from Wallace. Then at last", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They came to where another band had passed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With shoeless ponies, following the sun.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some miles the new trail ran as lean creeks run", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In droughty weather; then began to grow.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here other hoofs had swelled it, there, travaux;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And more and more the circumjacent plains", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had fed the trail, as when torrential rains", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Make prodigal the gullies and the sloughs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And prairie streams, late shrunken to an ooze,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Appal stout swimmers. Scarcity of game", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(But yesterday both plentiful and tame)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And recent pony-droppings told a tale", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of close pursuit. All day they kept the trail", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And slept upon it in their boots that night", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And saddled when the first gray wash of light", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was on the hill tops. Past the North Fork’s mouth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It led, and, crossing over to the south,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Struck up the valley of the Rickaree⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So broad by now that twenty, knee to knee,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Might ride thereon, nor would a single calk", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bite living sod.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Proceeding at a walk,", "indent": 9 }, { "text": "The troopers followed, awed by what they dared.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It seemed the low hills stood aloof, nor cared,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Disowning them; that all the gullies mocked", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The jingling gear of Folly where it walked", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The road to Folly’s end. The low day changed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To evening. Did the prairie stare estranged,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The knowing sun make haste to be away?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They saw the fingers of the failing day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grow longer, groping for the homeward trail.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They saw the sun put on a bloody veil", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And disappear. A flock of crows hurrahed.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Dismounting in the eerie valley, awed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With purple twilight and the evening star,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They camped beside the stream. A gravel bar", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here split the shank-deep Rickaree in two", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And made a little island. Tall grass grew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among its scattered alders, and there stood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A solitary sapling cottonwood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Within the lower angle of the sand.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "No jesting cheered the saddle-weary band", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That night; no fires were kindled to invoke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tales grim with cannon flare and battle smoke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Remembered, and the glint of slant steel rolled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Up roaring steeps. They ate short rations cold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thought about tomorrow and were dumb.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A hint of morning had begun to come;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So faint as yet that half the stars at least", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Discredited the gossip of the east.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The grazing horses, blowing at the frost,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were shadows, and the ghostly sentries tossed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their arms about them, drowsy in the chill.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Was something moving yonder on the hill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To westward? It was there⁠—it wasn’t there.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perhaps some wolfish reveller, aware", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of dawn, was making home. ’Twas there again!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And now the bubble world of snoring men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was shattered, and a dizzy wind, that hurled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the swooning ruins of the world", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Disintegrating dreams, became a shout:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Turn out! Turn out! The Indians! Turn out!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hearts pounding with the momentary funk", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of cold blood spurred to frenzy, reeling drunk", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With sleep, men stumbled up and saw the hill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where shadows of a dream were blowing still⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No⁠—mounted men were howling down the slopes!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The horses, straining at their picket ropes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Reared snorting. Barking carbines flashed and gloomed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Smearing the giddy picture. War drums boomed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And shaken rawhide crackled through the din.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A horse that trailed a bounding picket pin", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made off in terror. Others broke and fled.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then suddenly the silence of the dead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had fallen, and the slope in front was bare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And morning had become a startled stare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the empty prairie, white with frost.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Five horses and a pair of pack mules lost!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That left five donkeys for the packs. Men poked", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sly banter at the mountless ones, invoked", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The “infantry” to back them, while they threw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The saddles on and, boot to belly, drew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Groan-fetching cinches tight.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A scarlet streak", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was growing in the east. Amid the reek", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of cowchip fires that sizzled with the damp", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The smell of coffee spread about the camp", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A mood of peace. But ’twas a lying mood;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For suddenly the morning solitude", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was solitude no longer. “Look!” one cried.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The resurrection dawn, as prophesied,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lacked nothing but the trump to be fulfilled!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They wriggled from the valley grass! They spilled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the sky rim! North and south and west", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Increasing hundreds, men and ponies, pressed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against the few.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "’Twas certain death to flee.", "indent": 9 }, { "text": "The way left open down the Rickaree", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To where the valley narrowed to a gap", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was plainly but the baiting of a trap.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who rode that way would not be riding far.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Keep cool now, men! Cross over to the bar!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The colonel shouted. Down they went pell-mell,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Churning the creek. A heaven-filling yell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Assailed them. Was it triumph? Was it rage?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some few wild minutes lengthened to an age", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While fumbling fingers stripped the horses’ backs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And tied the horses. Crouched behind the packs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And saddles now, they fell with clawing hands", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To digging out and heaping up the sands", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Around their bodies. Shots began to fall⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The first few spatters of a thunder squall⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And still the Colonel strolled about the field,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Encouraging the men. A pack mule squealed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And floundered. “Down!” men shouted. “Take it cool,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Colonel answered; “we can eat a mule", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When this day’s work is over. Wait the word,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then see that every cartridge wings a bird.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Don’t shoot too fast.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The dizzy prairie spun", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With painted ponies, weaving on the run", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A many colored noose. So dances Death,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bedizened like a harlot, when the breath", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Autumn flutes among the shedding boughs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And scarlets caper and the golds carouse", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bronzes trip it and the late green leaps.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And then, as when the howling winter heaps", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The strippings of the hickory and oak", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And hurls them in a haze of blizzard smoke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along an open draw, the warriors formed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To eastward down the Rickaree, and stormed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against the isle, their solid front astride", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The shallow water.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Wait!” the Colonel cried;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Keep cool now!”⁠—Would he never say the word?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They heard the falling horses shriek; they heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The smack of smitten flesh, the whispering rush", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of arrows, bullets whipping through the brush", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And flicked sand phutting; saw the rolling eyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of war-mad ponies, crooked battle cries", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lost in the uproar, faces in a blast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of color, color, and the whirlwind last", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of all dear things forever.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Now!”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The fear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The fleet, sick dream of friendly things and dear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dissolved in thunder; and between two breaths", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men sensed the sudden splendor that is Death’s,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wild clairvoyant wonder. Shadows screamed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before the kicking Spencers, split and streamed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About the island in a flame-rent shroud.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And momently, with hoofs that beat the cloud,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Winged with the mad momentum of the charge,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A war horse loomed unnaturally large", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above the burning ring of rifles there,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lit, sprawling, in the midst and took the air", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And vanished. And the storming hoofs roared by.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And suddenly the sun, a handbreadth high,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was peering through the clinging battle-blur.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Along the stream, wherever bushes were", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or clumps of bluejoint, lurking rifles played", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the isle⁠—a point-blank enfilade,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Horse-slaughtering and terrible to stand;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And southward there along the rising land", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And northward where the valley was a plain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The horsemen galloped, and a pelting rain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of arrows fell.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now someone, lying near", "indent": 8 }, { "text": "Forsyth, was yelling in his neighbor’s ear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“They’ve finished Sandy!” For a giant whip,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It seemed, laid hot along the Colonel’s hip", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A lash of torture, and his face went gray", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And pinched. And voices boomed above the fray,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Is Sandy dead?” So, rising on a knee", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That anyone who feared for him might see,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He shouted: “Never mind⁠—it’s nothing bad!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And noting how the wild face of a lad", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yearned up at him⁠—the youngest face of all,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With cheeks like Rambeau apples in the fall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Eyes old as terror⁠—“Son, you’re doing well!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He cried and smiled; and that one lived to tell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The glory of it in the after days.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now presently the Colonel strove to raise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The tortured hip to ease it, when a stroke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As of a dull ax bit a shin that broke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beneath his weight. Dragged backward in a pit,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He sat awhile against the wall of it", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And strove to check the whirling of the land.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then, noticing how some of the command", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pumped lead too fast and threw their shells away,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He set about to crawl to where they lay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And tell them. Something whisked away his hat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And for a green-sick minute after that", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sky rained stars. Then vast ear-hollows rang", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With brazen noises, and a sullen pang", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was like a fire that smouldered in his skull.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He gazed about him groggily. A lull", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had fallen on the battle, and he saw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How pairs of horsemen galloped down the draw,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Recovering the wounded and the dead.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The snipers on the river banks had fled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To safer berths; but mounted hundreds still", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swarmed yonder on the flat and on the hill,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And long range arrows fell among the men.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The island had become a slaughter pen.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of all the mules and horses, one alone", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still stood. He wobbled with a gurgling moan,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Legs wide, his drooping muzzle dripping blood;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And some still wallowed in a scarlet mud", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And strove to rise, with threshing feet aloft.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But most lay still, as when the spring is soft", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And work-teams share the idleness of cows", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On Sunday, and a glutted horse may drowse,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Loose-necked, forgetting how the plowshare drags.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bill Wilson yonder lay like bundled rags,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And so did Chalmers. Farley over there,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With one arm limp, was taking special care", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make the other do; it did, no doubt.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Morton yonder with an eye shot out", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was firing slowly, but his gun barrel shook.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Mooers, the surgeon, with a sightless look", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of mingled expectation and surprise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had got a bullet just above the eyes;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But Death was busy and neglected him.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now all the while, beneath the low hill rim", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To southward, where a sunning slope arose", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To look upon the slaughter, Roman Nose", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was sitting, naked of his battle-gear.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In vain his chestnut stallion, tethered near,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had sniffed the battle, whinnying to go", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where horses cried to horses there below,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And men to men. By now a puzzled word", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ran round the field, and baffled warriors heard,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And out of bloody mouths the dying spat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The question: “Where is Roman Nose, the Bat?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While other men are dying, where is he?”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So certain of the mighty rode to see,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And found him yonder sitting in the sun.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They squatted round him silently. And one", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Got courage for a voice at length, and said:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Your people there are dying, and the dead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Are many.” But the Harrier of Men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Kept silence. And the bold one, speaking then", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To those about him, said: “You see today", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The one whom all the warriors would obey,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whatever he might wish. His heart is faint.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He has not even found the strength to paint", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His face, you see!” The Flame of Many Roofs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still smouldered there. The Midnight Wind of Hoofs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Kept mute. “Our brothers, the Arapahoes,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Another said, “will tell of Roman Nose;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their squaws will scorn him; and the Sioux will say", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "‘He was not like the men we were that day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When all the soldiers died by Peno ford!’ ”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "They saw him wince, as though the words had gored", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His vitals. Then he spoke. His voice was low.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“My medicine is broken. Long ago", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "One made a bonnet for a mighty man,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My father’s father; and the good gift ran", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From sire to son, and we were men of might.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For he who wore the bonnet in a fight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Could look on Death, and Death would fear him much,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So long as he should let no metal touch", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The food he ate. But I have been a fool.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A woman lifted with an iron tool", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bread I ate this morning. What you say", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is good to hear.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He cast his robe away,", "indent": 9 }, { "text": "Got up and took the bonnet from its case", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And donned it; put the death-paint on his face", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And mounted, saying “Now I go to die!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thereat he lifted up a bull-lunged cry", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That clamored far among the hills around;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And dying men took courage at the sound", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And muttered “He is coming.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now it fell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That those upon the island heard a yell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And looked about to see from whence it grew.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They saw a war-horse hurtled from the blue,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A big-boned chestnut, clean and long of limb,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That did not dwarf the warrior striding him,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So big the man was. Naked as the day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The neighbors sought his mother’s lodge to say", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“This child shall be a trouble to his foes”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Save for a gorgeous bonnet), Roman Nose", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came singing on the run. And as he came", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Mad hundreds hailed him, booming like a flame", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That rages over slough grass, pony tall.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They formed behind him in a solid wall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And halted at a lifting of his hand.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The troopers heard him bellow some command.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They saw him wheel and wave his rifle high;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And distant hills were peopled with the cry", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He flung at Death, that mighty men of old,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Long dead, might hear the coming of the bold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And know the land still nursed the ancient breed.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then, followed by a thundering stampede,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He charged the island where the rifles brawled.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And some who galloped nearest him recalled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In after days, what some may choose to doubt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How suddenly the hubbuboo went out", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In silence, and a wild white brilliance broke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About him, and the cloud of battle smoke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was thronged with faces not of living men.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then terribly the battle roared again.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And those who tell it saw him reel and sag", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against the stallion, like an empty bag,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then slip beneath the mill of pony hoofs.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So Roman Nose, the Flame of Many Roofs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flared out. And round the island swept the foe⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wrath-howling breakers with an undertow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of pain that wailed and murmuring dismay.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now Beecher, with the limp he got that day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At Gettysburg, rose feebly from his place,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unearthly moon-dawn breaking on his face,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And staggered over to the Colonel’s pit.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Half crawling and half falling into it,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“I think I have a fatal wound,” he said;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And from his mouth the hard words bubbled red", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In witness of the sort of hurt he had.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“No, Beecher, no! It cannot be so bad!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The other begged, though certain of the end;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For even then the features of the friend", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were getting queer. “Yes, Sandy, yes⁠—goodnight,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The stricken muttered. Whereupon the fight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No longer roared for him; but one who grieved", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fought thereby could hear the rent chest heaved", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With struggling breath that couldn’t leave the man.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And by and by the whirling host began", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To scatter, most withdrawing out of range.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Astonished at the suddenness of change", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From dawn to noon, the troopers saw the sun.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "To eastward yonder women had begun", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To glean the fallen, wailing as they piled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The broken loves of mother, maid and child", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On pony-drags; remembering their wont", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of heaping thus the harvest of the hunt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To fill the kettles these had sat around.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Forsyth now strove to view the battleground,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But could not for the tortured hip and limb;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And so they passed a blanket under him", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And four men heaved the corners; then he saw.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Well, Grover, have they other cards to draw,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or have they played the pack?” he asked a scout.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And that one took a plug of chewing out", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And gnawed awhile, then spat and said: “Dunno;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I’ve fit with Injuns thirty year or so", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And never see the like of this till now.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We made a lot of good ones anyhow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whatever else⁠—.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Just then it came to pass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some rifles, hidden yonder in the grass,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Took up the sentence with a snarling rip", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That made men duck. One let his corner slip.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Colonel tumbled, and the splintered shin", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went crooked, and the bone broke through the skin;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But what he said his angel didn’t write.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "’Twas plain the foe had wearied of the fight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though scores of wary warriors kept the field", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And circled, watching for a head revealed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above the slaughtered horses. Afternoon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Waned slowly, and a wind began to croon⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like memory. The sapling cottonwood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Responded with a voice of widowhood.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The melancholy heavens wove a pall.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Night hid the valley. Rain began to fall.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "How good is rain when from a sunlit scarp", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of heaven falls a silver titan’s harp", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For winds to play on, and the new green swirls", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beneath the dancing feet of April girls,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thunder-claps applaud the meadow lark!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How dear to be remembered⁠—rainy dark", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When Youth and Wonder snuggle safe abed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And hear creation bustling overhead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With fitful hushes when the eave drip-drops", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And everything about the whole house stops", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To hear what now the buds and grass may think!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Night swept the island with a brush of ink.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They heard the endless drizzle sigh and pass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And whisper to the bushes and the grass,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sh⁠—sh⁠—for men were dying in the rain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there was that low singing that is pain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And curses muttered lest a stout heart break.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "As one who lies with fever half awake", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sets the vague real shepherding a drove", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of errant dreams, the broken Colonel strove", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For order in the nightmare. Willing hands", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With knife and plate fell digging in the sands", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And throwing out a deep surrounding trench.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Graves, yawning briefly in the inky drench,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were satisfied with something no one saw.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Carved horse meat passed around for wolfing raw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And much was cached to save it from the sun.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now when the work about the camp was done", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all the wounds had got rude handed care,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Colonel called the men about him there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And spoke of Wallace eighty miles away.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who started yonder might not see the day;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet two must dare that peril with the tale", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of urgent need; and if the two should fail,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "God help the rest!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "It seemed that everyone", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who had an arm left fit to raise a gun", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And legs for swinging leather begged to go.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But all agreed with old Pierre Trudeau,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The grizzled trapper, when he “ ’lowed he knowed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The prairie like a farmer did a road,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many was the Injun he had fooled.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Stillwell’s youth and daring overruled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The others. Big he was and fleet of limb", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And for his laughing pluck men honored him,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Despite that weedy age when boys begin", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To get a little conscious of the chin", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And jokers dub them “Whiskers” for the lack.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "These two were swallowed in the soppy black", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wearily the sodden night dragged by.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "At last the chill rain ceased. A dirty sky", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Leaked morning. Culver, Farley, Day and Smith", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had found a comrade to adventure with", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And come upon the country that is kind.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But Mooers was slow in making up his mind", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To venture, though with any breath he might.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stark to the drab indecency of light,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The tumbled heaps, that once were horses, lay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With naked ribs and haunches lopped away⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Good friends at need with all their fleetness gone.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like wolves that smell a feast the foe came on,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A skulking pack. They met a gust of lead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That flung them with their wounded and their dead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Back to the spying summits of the hills,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Content to let the enemy that kills", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Without a wound complete the task begun.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Dawn cleared the sky, and all day long the sun", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shone hotly through a lens of amethyst⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like some incorrigible optimist", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who overworks the sympathetic role.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All day the troopers sweltered in the bowl", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of soppy sand, and wondered if the two", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were dead by now; or had they gotten through?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And if they hadn’t⁠—What about the meat?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Another day or two of steaming heat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would fix it for the buzzards and the crows;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there’d be choicer banqueting for those", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If no one came. So when a western hill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Burned red and blackened, and the stars came chill,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Two others started crawling down the flat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For Wallace; and for long hours after that", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men listened, listened, listened for a cry,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But heard no sound. And just before the sky", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Began to pale, the two stole back unhurt.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dark was full of shadow men, alert", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To block the way wherever one might go.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Alas, what chance for Stillwell and Trudeau?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That day the dozen wounded bore their plight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Less cheerfully than when the rainy night", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had held so great a promise. All day long,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As one who hums a half forgotten song", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By poignant bits, the dying surgeon moaned;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But when the west was getting sober-toned,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He choked a little and forgot the tune.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And men were silent, wondering how soon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They’d be like that.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now when the tipping Wain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above the Star, poured slumber on the plain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Jack Donovan and Pliley disappeared", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Down river where the starry haze made weird", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The narrow gulch. They seemed as good as dead;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all next day the parting words they said,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“We won’t be coming back,” were taken wrong.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The fourth sun since the battle lingered long.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Putrescent horseflesh now befouled the air.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some tried to think they liked the prickly pear.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some tightened up their belts a hole or so.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And certain of the wounded babbled low", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of places other than the noisome pits,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because the fever sped their straying wits", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like homing bumblebees that know the hive.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That day the Colonel found his leg alive", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With life that wasn’t his.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The fifth sun crept;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The evening dawdled; morning overslept.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It seemed the dark would never go away;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The kiotes filled it with a roundelay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of toothsome horses smelling to the sky.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But somehow morning happened by and by.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All day the Colonel scanned the prairie rims", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And found it hard to keep away the whims", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That dogged him; often, wide awake, he dreamed.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The more he thought of it, the more it seemed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That all should die of hunger wasn’t fair;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And so he called the sound men round him there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And spoke of Wallace and the chance they stood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make their way to safety, if they would.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As for himself and other cripples⁠—well,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They’d take a chance, and if the worst befell,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were soldiers.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There was silence for a space", "indent": 8 }, { "text": "While each man slyly sought his neighbor’s face", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To see what better thing a hope might kill.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then there was one who growled: “The hell we will!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We’ve fought together and we’ll die so too!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "One might have thought relief had come in view", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To hear the shout that rose.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The slow sun sank.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The empty prairie gloomed. The horses stank.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The kiotes sang. The starry dark was cold.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "That night the prowling wolves grew over bold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And one was cooking when the sun came up.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It gave the sick a little broth to sup;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And for the rest, they joked and made it do.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all day long the cruising buzzards flew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above the island, eager to descend;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While, raucously prophetic of the end,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The crows wheeled round it hungrily to pry;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And mounted warriors loomed against the sky", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To peer and vanish. Darkness fell at last;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But when the daylight came and when it passed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Colonel scarcely knew, for things got mixed;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The moment was forever, strangely fixed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And never in a moment. Still he kept", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "One certain purpose, even when he slept,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To cheer the men by seeming undismayed.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But when the eighth dawn came, he grew afraid", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of his own weakness. Stubbornly he sat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His tortured face half hidden by his hat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And feigned to read a novel one had found", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the baggage. But the print went round", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wouldn’t talk however it was turned.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "At last the morning of the ninth day burned.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Again he strove to regiment the herds", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of dancing letters into marching words,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When suddenly the whole command went mad.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They yelled; they danced the way the letters had;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They tossed their hats.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then presently he knew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twas cavalry that made the hillside blue⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The cavalry from Wallace!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Autumn’s goad", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had thronged the weed-grown Powder River Road", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With bison following the shrinking green.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Again the Platte and Smoky Hill had seen", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The myriads nosing at the dusty hem", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Summer’s robe; and, drifting after them,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wild marauders vanished. Winter came;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And lo! the homesteads echoed with a name", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That was a ballad sung, a saga told;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For, once men heard it, somehow it was old", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With Time’s rich hoarding and the bardic lyres.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By night the settlers hugged their cowchip fires", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And talked of Custer, while the children heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The way the wild wind dramatized the word", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With men and horses roaring to the fight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And valiant bugles crying down the night,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far-blown from Cedar Creek or Fisher’s Hill.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And in their sleep they saw him riding still,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A part of all things wonderful and past,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His bright hair streaming in the battle blast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above a surf of sabres! Roofs of shale", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And soddy walls seemed safer for the tale,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The prairie kinder for that name of awe.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For now the Battle of the Washita", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was fought at every hearthstone in the land.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twas song to talk of Custer and his band:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The blizzard dawn, the march from Camp Supply,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Blind daring with the compass for an eye", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To pierce the writhing haze; the icy fords,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The freezing sleeps; the finding of the hordes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That deemed the bitter weather and the snows", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their safety⁠—Kiowas, Arapahoes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cheyennes, Comanches⁠—miles of river flat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "One village; Custer crouching like a cat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the drifts; the numbing lapse of night;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The brass band blaring in the first wan light,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The cheers, the neighing, and the wild swoop down", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To widow-making in a panic town", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of widow-makers! O ’twas song to say", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How Old Black Kettle paid his life that day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For bloody dawns of terror! Lyric words", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dwelt long upon his slaughtered pony herds,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His lodges burning for the roofs that blazed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That dreadful year! Rejoicing Kansas raised", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her eyes beyond the days of her defeat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And saw her hills made mighty with the wheat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The tasselled com ranks marching on the plain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wonder-working of the sun and rain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And faith and labor; plenty out of dearth;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Man’s mystic marriage with the virgin Earth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A hard-won bride.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And April came anew;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But there were those⁠—and they were human too⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For whom the memory of other springs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sought vainly in the growing dusk of things", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The ancient joy. Along the Smoky Hill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The might they could no longer hope to kill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Brawled west again, where maniacs of toil", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were chaining down the violated soil,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And plows went wiving in the bison range,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An alien-childed mother growing strange", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With younger loves. May deepened in the sloughs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When down the prairie swept the wonder news", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of what had happened at the Great Salt Lake,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And how, at last, the crawling iron snake", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the Platte had lengthened to the sea.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So shadows of a thing that was to be", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grew darker in the land.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Four years went by,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And still the solemn music of a lie", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Kept peace in all the country of the Sioux.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unharried yonder, still the bison knew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The meadows of Absoraka and throve;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But now no more the Hoary Herdsman drove", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His countless cattle past the great Platte road.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still honoring the treaty, water flowed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And grass grew, faithful to the plighted word.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then yonder on the Yellowstone was heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The clank of sabers; and the Red Men saw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How Yellow Hair, the Wolf of Washita,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went spying with his pack along the stream,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While others, bitten with a crazy dream,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were driving stakes and peeping up the flat.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Just so it was that summer on the Platte", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before the evil came. And devil boats", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came up with stinking thunder in their throats", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To scare the elk and make the bison shy.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So there was fighting yonder where the lie", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was singing flat; though nothing came of it.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And once again the stunted oaks were lit,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And down across the prairie howled the cold;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And spring came back, exactly as of old,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To resurrect the waters and the grass.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The summer deepened peacefully⁠—alas,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The last of happy summers, cherished long", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As Sorrow hoards the wreckage of a song", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose wounding lilt is dearer for the wound.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The children laughed; contented mothers crooned", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About their lodges. Nothing was afraid.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The warriors talked of hunting, in the shade,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or romped with crowing babies on their backs.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The meat was plenty on the drying racks;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The luscious valleys made the ponies glad;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And travellers knew nothing that was bad", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To tell of any village they had known.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No white men yonder on the Yellowstone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor any sign of trouble anywhere!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then once again the name of Yellow Hair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was heard with dread; for Summer, turning brown,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beheld him lead a thousand horsemen down", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To pierce the Hills where Inyan Kara towers,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Brawl southward through that paradise of flowers", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And deer and singing streams to Frenchman Creek;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beheld him even climbing Harney Peak", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To spy the land, as who should say him no!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had grasses failed? Had water ceased to flow?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were pledges wind?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now scarce the sloughs were sere", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When Custer, crying in the wide world’s ear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What every need and greed could understand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made all men see the Black Hills wonderland", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Fortune waited, ready with a bow.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What fertile valleys pining for the plow!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What lofty forests given to the birds,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What luscious cattle pastures to the herds", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of elk and deer! What flower-enchanted parks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now lonely with the quails and meadowlarks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Awaited men beneath the shielding peaks!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And in the creeks⁠—in all the crystal creeks⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The blessèd creeks⁠—O wonder to behold!⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Free gold⁠—the god of rabbles⁠—holy gold⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And gold in plenty from the grass-roots down!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Black Hills Country! Heard in every town,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That incantation of a wizard horn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wrought madness. Farmers caught it in the corn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To shuck no more. No glory of the sward", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Outdazzled yonder epiphanic Lord⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The only revelation that was sure!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And through the cities went the singing lure,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where drearily the human welter squirms", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like worms that lick the slime of other worms", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That all may flourish. Squalor saw the gleam,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And paupers mounted in a splendid dream", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The backs of luckless men, for now the weak", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Inherited the earth! The fat, the sleek", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Envisaged that apocalypse, and saw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Obesity to put the cringe of awe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In knees of leanness!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Sell the family cow!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Go pawn the homestead! Life was knocking now!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There might not ever be another knock.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bring forth the hoarding of the hidden sock,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Poor coppers from the dear dead eyes of Joy!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Go seek the god that weighs the soul by troy;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Be saved, and let the devil take the rest!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The West⁠—the golden West⁠—the siren West⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behold the rainbow’s end among her peaks!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For in the creeks⁠—in all the crystal creeks⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The blessèd creeks⁠—!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So wrought the rueful dream.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Chinooks of hope fed full the human stream,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Brief thawings of perennial despair.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And steadily the man-flood deepened there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With every moon along the Sioux frontier,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where still the treaty held⁠—a rotten wier", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Already trickling with a leak of men.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And some of those came drifting back again,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Transfigured palmers from the Holy Lands,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With true salvation gleaming in their hands", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now cleansed of labor. Thus the wonder grew.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And there were flinty hearts among the Sioux", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That fall and winter. Childish, heathen folk,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their god was but a spirit to invoke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the hushes of a lonely hill;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An awfulness when winter nights were still;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A mystery, a yearning to be felt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When birds returned and snow began to melt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And miracles were doing in the grass.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Negotiable Divinity, alas,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They had not yet the saving grace to know!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Nor did the hard hearts soften with the snow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When from the high gray wilderness of rain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Johannine voices of the goose and crane", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Foretold the Coming to a world enthralled;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For still along the teeming border brawled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The ever growing menace.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Summer bloomed;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But many, with the prescience of the doomed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Could feel the shaping of the end of things", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In all that gladness. How the robin sings", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sweeter in the ghastly calm that aches", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With beauty lost, before the cyclone breaks!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And helpless watchers feel it as a pang,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because of all the times the robin sang", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Scarce noted in the melody of then.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About the lodges gray and toothless men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bemoaned the larger time when life was good.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hey-hey, what warriors then, what hardihood!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What terror of the Sioux among their foes!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What giants, gone, alas, these many snows⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And they who knew so near their taking off!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now beggars at the Great White Father’s trough", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forgot the bow and waited to be swilled.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The woman-hearted god the White Man killed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bewitched the people more with every moon.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The buffalo would join the fathers soon.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The world was withered like a man grown old.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A few more grasses, and the Sioux would hold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A little paper, dirtied with a lie,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For all that used to be. ’Twas time to die.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hey-hey, the braver days when life was new!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But there were strong hearts yet among the Sioux", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Despite the mumbling of the withered gums.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That summer young men chanted to the drums", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of mighty deeds; and many went that fall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull and Gall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were shepherding their people on the Tongue", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Powder yet, as when the world was young,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Contemptuous of alien ways and gods.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now when the candles of the goldenrods", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were guttering about the summer’s bier,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And unforgetting days were hushed to hear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some rumor of a lone belated bird,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It came to pass the Great White Father’s word", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Assembled many on the White to meet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Long Knife chieftains. Bitter words and sweet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grew rankly there; and stubbornly the wills", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of children met the hagglers for the Hills,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The lust for gold begetting lust for gold.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The young moon grew and withered and was old,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And still the latest word was like the first.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then talking ended and the man-dam burst", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To loose the living flood upon the West.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All winter long it deepened, and the crest", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came booming with the February thaw.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The torrent setting in through Omaha", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ground many a grist of greed, and loud Cheyenne", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Became a tail-race running mules and men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hell-bent for Eldorado. Yankton vied", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With Sidney in the combing of the tide", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For costly wreckage. Giddily it swirled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Custer City shouted to the world", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Deadwood was a howl, and Nigger Hill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A cry from Pisgah. Unabated still,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Innumerable distant freshets flowed.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bison trail became a rutted road", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And prairie schooners cruised the rolling Spring.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In labor with a monstrous farrowing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The river packets grunted; and the plains", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were startled at the spawning of the trains", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the Platte.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So, bitten by the imp", "indent": 9 }, { "text": "Of much-for-nought, the gambler and the pimp,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The hero and the coward and the fool,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The pious reader of the golden rule", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By decimals, the dandy and the gawk,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The human eagle and the wingless hawk", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Alert for prey, the graybeard and the lad,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The murderer, the errant Galahad,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Mistaken in the color of the gleam⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All dreamers of the old pathetic dream⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pursued what no pursuing overtakes.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Meanwhile among the Powder River breaks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where cottonwoods and plums and stunted oaks", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made snug his village of a hundred smokes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Young Crazy Horse was waiting for the spring.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Well found his people were in everything", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That makes a winter good. But more than food", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And shelter from the hostile solitude", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sustained them yonder when the sun fled far", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And rustling ghost-lights capered round the Star", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And moons were icy and the blue snow whined;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or when for days the world went blizzard blind", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And devils of the North came howling down.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For something holy moved about the town", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With Crazy Horse.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "No chieftainship had run,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Long cherished in the blood of sire and son,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To clothe him with the might he wielded then.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Ogalalas boasted taller men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But few of fairer body. One might look", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And think of water running in a brook", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or maybe of a slender hickory tree;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And something in his face might make one see", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A flinty shaft-head very keen to go,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because a hero’s hand is on the bow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His eye upon the mark. But nothing seen", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About his goodly making or his mien", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Explained the man; and other men were bold.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unnumbered were the stories that were told", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(And still the legend glorified the truth)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About his war-fond, pony-taming youth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When Hump the Elder was a man to fear;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And where one went, the other would be near,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For there was love between the man and lad.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And it was good to tell what fights they had", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With roving bands of Utes or Snakes or Crows.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And now that Hump was gone these many snows,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His prowess lingered. So the legend ran.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But neither Hump nor any other man", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Could give the gift that was a riddle still.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What lonely vigils on a starry hill,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What fasting in the time when boyhood dies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had put the distant seeing in his eyes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The power in his silence? What had taught", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That getting is a game that profits naught", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And giving is a high heroic deed?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His plenty never neighbored with a need", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among his band. A good tough horse to ride,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The gear of war, and some great dream inside", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were Crazy Horse’s wealth. It seemed the dim", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And larger past had wandered back in him", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To shield his people in the days of wrong.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His thirty years were like a brave old song", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That men remember and the women croon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make their babies brave.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now when the moon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had wearied of December and was gone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bitterly the blizzard time came on,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Great White Father had a word to say.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The frost-bit runners rode a weary way", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To bring the word, and this is what it said:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“All bands, before another moon is dead,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Must gather at the agencies or share", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The fate of hostiles.” Grandly unaware", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of aught but its own majesty and awe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The big word blustered. Yet the people saw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The snow-sift snaking in the grasses, heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Northwind bellow louder than the word", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make them shudder with the winter fear.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“You see that there are many children here,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Said Crazy Horse. “Our herd is getting lean.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We can not go until the grass is green.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It is a very foolish thing you say.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And so the surly runners rode away", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Crazy Horse’s people stayed at home.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And often were the days a howling gloam", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Between two howling darks; nor could one tell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When morning broke and when the long night fell;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For ’twas a winter such as old men cite", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To overawe and set the youngsters right", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With proper veneration for the old.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The ponies huddled humpbacked in the cold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, dog-like, gnawed the bark of cottonwood.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But where the cuddled rawhide lodges stood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men laughed and yarned and let the blizzard roar,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unwitting how the tale the runners bore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Prepared the day of sorrow.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "March boomed in,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And still the people revelled in their sin", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor thought of woe already on the way.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then, when the night was longer than the day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By just about an old man’s wink and nod,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As sudden as the storied wrath of God,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And scarce more human, retribution came.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The moony wind that night was like a flame", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To sear whatever naked flesh it kissed.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dry snow powder coiled and struck and hissed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the lodges. Haloes mocked the moon.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The boldest tale was given over soon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For kinder evenings; and the dogs were still", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before the prowling foe no pack might kill,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The subtle fang that feared not any fang.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But ever nearer, nearer, shod hoofs rang", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To southward, unsuspected in the town.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Three cavalry battalions, flowing down", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rugged canyon bed of Otter Creek", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With Reynolds, clattered out across the bleak", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "High prairie, eerie in the fitful light,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where ghostly squadrons howled along the night,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their stinging sabers gleaming in the wind.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All night they sought the village that had sinned", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet slept the sleep of virtue, unafraid.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Bear swung round; the stars began to fade;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The low moon stared. Then, floating in the puffs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of wind-whipped snow, the Powder River bluffs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gloomed yonder, and the scouts came back to tell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of many sleeping lodges.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now it fell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That when the bluffs were paling with the glow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of dawn, and still the teepee tops below", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stood smokeless in the stupor of a dream,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A Sioux boy, strolling down the frozen stream", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To find his ponies, wondered at the sound", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of many hoofs upon the frozen ground,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The swishing of the brush. He paused to think.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The herd, no doubt, was coming for a drink;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He’d have to chop a hole. And while he stood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The spell of dawn upon him, from the wood⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How queer!⁠—they issued marching four by four", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As though enchanted, breasts and muzzles hoar", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With frozen breath! Were all the ponies dead,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And these their taller spirits?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "—Then he fled,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The frightened trees and bushes flowing dim,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The blanching bluff tops flinging back at him", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His many-echoed yell. A frowsy squaw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thrust up a lodge flap, blinked about her⁠—saw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What ailed her boy, and fell to screaming shrill.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The startled wolf-dogs, eager for a kill,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rushed yelping from the lodges. Snapping sharp,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As ’twere a short string parting in a harp,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A frosty rifle sounded. Teepees spilled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A half clad rabble, and the valley filled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With uproar, spurting into jets of pain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For now there swept a gust of killing rain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From where the plunging horses in a cloud", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of powder smoke bore down upon the crowd", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To set it scrambling wildly for the breaks.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The waddling grandmas lost their precious aches", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In terror for the young they dragged and drove;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hysteric mothers staggered as they strove", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To pack the creepers and the toddlers too;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And grandpas, not forgetting they were Sioux,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made shift to do a little with the bows,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While stubbornly the young men after those", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Retreated fighting through the lead-swept town", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And up the sounding steeps.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There, looking down", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the track of terror splotched with red", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And dotted with the wounded and the dead,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They saw the blue-coats rage among their roofs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their homes flung down and given to the hoofs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of desecrating wrath. And while they gazed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In helpless grief and fury, torches blazed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And teepees kindled. Casks of powder, stored", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against a doubtful future, belched and roared.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The hurtled lodge poles showered in the gloom,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And rawhide tops, like glutted bats of doom,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sailed tumbling in the dusk of that despair.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Not long the routed warriors cowered there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the rocks and gullies of the steep.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The weakness of a panic-broken sleep", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wore off. Their babies whimpered in the frost.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their herd was captured. Everything seemed lost", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But life alone. It made them strong to die.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The death-song, stabbed with many a battle cry,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Blew down the flat⁠—a blizzard of a sound⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all the rocks and draws and brush around", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spat smoke and arrows in a closing ring.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There fell a sudden end of plundering.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Abruptly as they came the raiders fled,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And certain of their wounded, men have said,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were left to learn what hells are made of wrath.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now, gleaning in that strewn tornado path", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their dead and dying, came the mourning folk", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To find a heap for home, a stinking smoke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For plenty. Senseless to the whirling snow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About the bitter honey of their woe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They swarmed and moaned. What evil had they done?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dear eyes, forever empty of the sun,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stared up at them. These little faces, old", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With pain, and pinched with more than winter cold⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Why should they never seek the breast again?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A keening such as wakes the wolf in men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Outwailed the wind. Yet many a thrifty wife,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Long used to serve the urgencies of life", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That make death seem a laggard’s impudence,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Descended in a rage of commonsense", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the wreck, collecting what would do", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To fend the cold.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now while the village grew,", "indent": 9 }, { "text": "A miracle of patches, jerry-built,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The young men, hot upon the trail of guilt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With Crazy Horse, found many a huddled stray", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forlorn along the thousand-footed way", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The stolen herd had gone. And all day long", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their fury warmed them and their hearts were strong", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To meet with any death a man might die;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For still they heard the wounded children cry,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mourning of the women for the dead.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor did they deem that any hero led", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The raiders. Surely nothing but the greed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of terror could devour at such a speed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That pony-laming wallow, drift on drift.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The blue dusk mingled with the driven sift,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And still it seemed the trail of headlong flight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was making for the wilderness of night", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And safety. Then, a little way below", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mouth of Lodge Pole Creek, a dancing glow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went up the bluff. Some few crept close to see,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And what they saw was listless misery", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That crouched and shivered in a smudge of sage.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How well they cooled their baby-killing rage,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Those tentless men without a bite to eat!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many, rubbing snow upon their feet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made faces that were better to behold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than how their shaking horses took the cold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With tight-tailed rumps against the bitter flaw.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beyond the camp and scattered up the draw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The hungry ponies pawed the frozen ground,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there was no one anywhere around", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To guard them. White-man medicine was weak.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now all the young men, hearing, burned to wreak", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their hate upon the foe. A wiser will", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Restrained them. “Wait a better time to kill,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Said Crazy Horse. “Our lives are few to give", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And theirs are many. Can our people live", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Without the herd? We must not die today.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The time will come when I will lead the way", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where many die.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Like hungry wolves that prowl", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The melancholy marches of the owl", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where cows and calves are grazing unafraid,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The pony stalkers went. A stallion neighed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ears pricked to question what the dusk might bring;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then all the others fell to whinnying", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yonder in the camp the soldiers heard.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some rose to point where many shadows, blurred", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With driven snow and twilight, topped a rise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And vanished in the smother. Jeering cries", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came struggling back and perished in the bruit", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of charging wind. No bugles of pursuit", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Aroused the camp. Night howled along the slough.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now wheresoever thawing breezes blew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And green began to prickle in the brown,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There went the tale of Crazy Horse’s town", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To swell a mood already growing there.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For something more than Spring was in the air,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, mightier than any maiden’s eyes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Lilith-lure of Perilous Emprise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was setting all the young men’s blood astir.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How fair the more than woman face of her", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose smile has gulfed how many a daring prow!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What cities burn for jewels on her brow;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon her lips what vintages are red!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her lovers are the tallest of the dead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forever. When the streams of Troas rolled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So many heroes seaward, she was old;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet she is young forever to the young.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "’Twas now the murmur of the man-flood, flung", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the Hills, grew ominously loud.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The whole white world seemed lifted in a cloud", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To sweep the prairie with a monstrous rain.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Slay one, and there were fifty to be slain!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Give fifty to the flame for torturing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then count the marching multitude of Spring", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Green blade by blade!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Still wilder rumors grew;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They told of soldiers massed against the Sioux", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And waiting till the grass was good, to fall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull and Gall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That all the country might be safe for theft,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And nothing of a warrior race be left", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But whining beggars in a feeding pen.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Alas, the rights of men⁠—of other men⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That centenary season of the Free!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No doubt the situation wanted tea", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make it clear! But long before the green", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had topped the hills, the agencies grew lean", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of youth and courage. Did a watch dog bark", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Midway between the owl and meadowlark?⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then other lads with bow and shield and lance", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were making for the Region of Romance", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Sitting Bull’s weird medicine was strong", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Crazy Horse’s name was like a song", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A happy warrior sings before he dies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Gall’s a wind of many battle cries", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That flings a thousand ponies on the doomed.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So where the Powder and the Rosebud boomed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men met as water of the melting snows.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The North Cheyennes and North Arapahoes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Become one people in a common cause", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With Brulés, Minneconjoux, Hunkpapas,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sans Arcs and Ogalalas, came to throng", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The valleys; and the villages were long", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With camp on camp. Nor was there any bluff,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In all the country, that was tall enough", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To number half the ponies at a look.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here young June came with many tales of Crook,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Gray Fox, marching up the Bozeman Road.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How long a dust above his horsemen flowed!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How long a dust his walking soldiers made!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What screaming thunder when the pack-mules brayed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all the six-mule wagon teams replied!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The popping of the whips on sweaty hide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How like a battle when the foe is bold!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And from the North still other tales were told", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By those who heard the steamboats wheeze and groan", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With stuffs of war along the Yellowstone", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To feed the camps already waiting there.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Awaiting what? The might of Yellow Hair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now coming from the Heart’s mouth! Rumor guessed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How many Snakes were riding from the West", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To join the Whites against their ancient foes;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How many Rees, how many of the Crows", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Remembered to be jealous of the Sioux.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Look north, look south⁠—the cloud of trouble grew.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Look east, look west⁠—the whole horizon frowned.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But it was better to be ringed around", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With enemies, to battle and to fail,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than be a beggar chief like Spotted Tail,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "However fattened by a hated hand.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now when the full moon flooded all the land", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before the laughter of the owls began,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They turned to One who, mightier than Man,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Could help them most⁠—the Spirit in the sun;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For whatsoever wonder-work is done", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the needy earth, he does it all.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For him the whole world sickens in the fall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When streams cease singing and the skies go gray", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And trees and bushes weep their leaves away", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In hopeless hushes empty of the bird,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all day long and all night long are heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The high geese wailing after their desire.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But, even so, his saving gift of fire", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is given unto miserable men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until they see him face to face again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all his magic happen, none knows how.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It was the time when he is strongest now;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And so a holy man whose heart was good", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went forth to find the sacred cottonwood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Belovèd of the Spirit. Straight and high,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A thing of worship yearning for the sky,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It flourished, sunning in a lonely draw;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there none heard the holy man nor saw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What rites were done, save only one who knows", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From whence the new moon comes and whither goes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The old, and what the stars do all day long.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thereafter came the people with a song,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The men, the boys, the mothers and the maids,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All posy-crowns and blossom-woven braids,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As though a blooming meadow came to see.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fruitful women danced about the tree", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make the Spirit glad; for, having known", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The laughter of the children of their own,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some goodness of the earth, the giving one,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was in them and was pleasing to the Sun,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The prairie-loving nourisher of seed.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A warrior who had done the bravest deed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet dared that year by any of the Sioux", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now struck the trunk as one who counts a coup", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon a dreaded foe; and prairie gifts", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He gave among the poor, for nothing lifts", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The heart like giving. Let the coward save⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Big hoard and little heart; but still the brave", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Have more with nothing! Singing virgins came", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose eyes had never learned to droop with shame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor was there any present, man or youth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Could say them aught of ill and say the truth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For sweet as water in a snow-born brook", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where many birches come and lean to look", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along a mountain gorge, their spirits were.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And each one took the ax they gave to her", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And smote the tree with many a lusty stroke;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And with a groan the sleeper in it ’woke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And far hills heard the falling shout of him.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still rang the axes, cleaving twig and limb", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the tapered beauty of the bole,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till, naked to the light, the sacred pole", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lay waiting for the bearers.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "They who bore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were chieftains, and their fathers were before,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all of them had fasted, as they should;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet none dared touch the consecrated wood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With naked fingers, out of pious fear.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And once for every season of the year", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They paused along the way, remembering", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With thanks alike the autumn and the spring,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The winter and the summer.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then it fell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That many warriors, lifting up a yell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That set their ponies plunging, thundered down", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the center of the circled town", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where presently the holy tree should stand;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For whosoever first of all the band", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Could strike the sacred spot with bow or spear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Might gallop deep among the dead that year", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet be of those whom busy Death forgot.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sweaty battle raged about the spot", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where screaming ponies, rearing to the thrust", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of screaming ponies, clashed amid the dust,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And riders wrestled in the hoof-made gloam.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So, having safely brought the sun-tree home,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The people feasted as for victory.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And on the second day they dressed the tree", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And planted it with sacred songs and vows,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And round it reared a wall of woven boughs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That opened to the mystic source of day.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And with the next dawn mothers came to lay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their babies down before the holy one,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each coveting a hero for a son", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or sturdy daughters fit to nurse the bold.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then when the fourth dawn came the war drums rolled;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And from their lodges, lean and rendered pure", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With meatless days, those vowing to endure", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The death-in-torture to be born again,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came naked there before the holy men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who painted them with consecrated paint.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And if a knee seemed loosened, it was faint", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With fast and weary vigil, not with dread;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For lo! the multitudinary dead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pressed round to see if heroes such as they", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still walked the earth despite the smaller day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When ’twas not half so easy to be brave.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now, prone beneath the pole, as in a grave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Without a wince each vower took the blade", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In chest or back, and through the wound it made", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Endured the passing of the rawhide thong,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swung from the pole’s top; raised a battle song", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To daunt his anguish; staggered to his feet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, leaning, capered to the war drum’s beat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A dizzy rigadoon with Agony.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So all day long the spirit-haunted tree", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bore bloody fruitage, groaning to the strain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For with the dropping of the ripe-in-pain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the stem the green-in-courage grew.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And seldom had there fallen on the Sioux", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So great a wind of ghostly might as then.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Boys tripped it, bleeding, with the tortured men.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mothers, daughters, sisters, sweethearts, wives", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of those who suffered, gashed their flesh with knives", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To share a little of the loved one’s pang;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all day long the sunning valley rang", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With songs of courage; and the mother sod", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Received the red libation; and the god", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gave power to his people.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Far away,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "One foggy morning in the midst of May,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fort Lincoln had beheld the marshalling", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Terry’s forces; heard the bugle sing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The blaring of the band, the brave hurrah", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Custer’s men recalling Washita", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And confident of yet another soon.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How gallantly in column of platoon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(So many doomed and given to the ghost)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before the weeping women of the post", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They sat their dancing horses on parade!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What made the silence suddenly afraid", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When, with a brazen crash, the band went whist", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, dimmer in the clinging river mist,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The line swung westward? Did the Ree squaws know,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through some wise terror of the ancient foe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To what unearthly land their warriors led", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The squadrons? Better suited to the dead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than to the quick, their chanting of farewell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grew eerie in the shadow, rose and fell⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The long-drawn yammer of a lonely dog.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But when at length the sun broke through the fog,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What reassurance in the wide blue air,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The solid hills, and Custer riding there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With all the famous Seventh at his heel!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And back of those the glint of flowing steel", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above the dusty infantry; the sun’s", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Young glimmer on the trundled Gatling guns;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And then the mounted Rees; and after that", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The loaded pack mules straggling up the flat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wagons crowding wagons for a mile!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "What premonition of the afterwhile", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Could darken eyes that saw such glory pass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When, lilting in a muffled blare of brass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Off yonder near the sundering prairie rim,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“The Girl I Left Behind Me” floated dim", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As from the unrecoverable years?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And was it nothing but a freak of tears,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The vision that the grieving women saw?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For suddenly a shimmering veil of awe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Caught up the van. One could have counted ten", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While Custer and the half of Custer’s men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were riding up a shining steep of sky", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As though to join the dead that do not die", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But haunt some storied heaven of the bold.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And then it seemed a smoke of battle rolled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the picture, leaving empty air", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above the line that slowly shortened there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And dropped below the prairie and was gone.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now day by day the column straggled on", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While moody May was dribbling out in rain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To make a wagon-wallow of the plain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Between the Muddy and the upper Heart.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where lifeless hills, as by demonic art,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were hewn to forms of wonderment and fear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Excited echoes flocked about to hear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And any sound brought riotous applause,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So long among the scarps and tangled draws", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had clung that silence and the spell of it.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some fiend-deserted city of the Pit", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The region seemed, with crumbling domes and spires;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For still it smoked with reminiscent fires,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And in the midst, as ’twere the stream of woe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A dark flood ran.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "June blustered in with snow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all the seasons happened in a week.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beyond the Beaver and O’Fallon creek", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They toiled. Amid the wilderness of breaks", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The drainage of the lower Powder makes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They found a way and brought the wagons through;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor had they sight or sign of any Sioux", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In all that land. Here Reno headed south", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With packs and half the troopers for the mouth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Mispah, thence to scout the country west", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About the Tongue; while Terry and the rest", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pushed onward to the Yellowstone to bide", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With Gibbon’s men the news of Reno’s ride.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Mid June drew on. Slow days of waiting bred", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unhappy rumors. Everybody said", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What no one, closely questioned, seemed to know.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Enormous numerations of the foe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By tentative narration made exact", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And tagged with all the circumstance of fact,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Discredited the neat official tale.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twas well when dawn came burning down the vale", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And river fogs were lifting like a smoke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bugles, singing reveille, awoke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A thousand-throated clamor in the herd.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But when the hush was like a warning word", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And taps had yielded darkness to the owl,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A horse’s whinny or a kiote’s howl", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made true the wildest rumors of the noon.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So passed the fateful seventeenth of June", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When none might guess how much the gossip lacked", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To match the unimaginative fact", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of what the upper Rosebud saw that day:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How Crook, with Reno forty miles away,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had met the hordes of Crazy Horse and Gall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all the draws belched cavalries, and all", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The ridges bellowed and the river fen", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went dizzy with the press of mounted men⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A slant cyclonic tangle; how the dark", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came not a whit too early, and the lark", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beheld the Gray Fox slinking back amazed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To Goose Creek; what a dust the victors raised", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When through the Cherish Hills by many a pass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They crowded down upon the Greasy Grass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To swell the hostile thousands waiting there.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Alas, how wide they made for Yellow Hair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That highway leading to the shining Past!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now came the end of waiting, for at last", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The scouring squadrons, jogging from the south,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had joined their comrades at the Rosebud’s mouth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With doubtful news. That evening by the fires,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "According to their dreads or their desires,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The men discussed the story that was told", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About a trail, not over three weeks old,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That led across the country from the Tongue,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Struck up the Rosebud forty miles and swung", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Again to westward over the divide.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some said, “We’ll find blue sky the other side,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then back to Lincoln soon!” But more agreed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twould not be so with Custer in the lead.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“He’ll eat his horses when the hardtack’s gone", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till every man’s afoot!” And thereupon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Scarred veterans remembered other days", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With Custer⁠—thirsty marches in the blaze", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Texas suns, with stringy mule to chew;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And times when splinters of the North Pole blew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the lofty Colorado plains;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And muddy going in the sullen rains", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Kansas springs, when verily you felt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Your backbone rub the buckle of your belt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because there weren’t any mules to spare.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Aye, there were tales to make the rookies stare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Custer’s daring and of Custer’s luck.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And some recalled that night before they struck", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Black Kettle’s village. Whew! And what a night!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A foot of snow, and not a pipe alight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And not a fire! You didn’t dare to doze,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But kept your fingers on your horse’s nose", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For fear he’d nicker and the chance be lost.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all night long there, starry in the frost,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You’d see the steaming Colonel striding by.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And when the first light broke along the sky,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet not enough to make a saber shine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You should have seen him gallop down the line", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With hair astream! It warmed your blood to see", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The way he clapped his hat beneath his knee", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yelled “Come on!” “Go ask him if we came!”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And so they conjured with a magic name;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But, wakeful in the darkness after taps,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How many saddened, conscious of the lapse", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of man-denying time!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The last owl ceased.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A pewee sensed the changing of the east", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fluted shyly, doubtful of the news.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A wolf, returning from an all-night cruise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the rabbits, topped a staring rim", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And vanished. Now the cooks were stirring dim,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Waist-deep in woodsmoke crawling through the damp.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The shadow lifted from the snoring camp.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bugle sang. The horses cried ha! ha!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mule herd raised a woeful fanfara", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To swell the music, singing out of tune.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Up came the sun.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Seventh marched at noon,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Six hundred strong. By fours and troop by troop,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With packs between, they passed the Colonel’s group", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By Terry’s tent; the Rickarees and Crows", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Astride their shaggy paints and calicoes;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The regimental banner and the grays;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And after them the sorrels and the bays,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The whites, the browns, the piebalds and the blacks.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "One flesh they seemed with those upon their backs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose weathered faces, like and fit for bronze,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some gleam of unforgotten battle-dawns", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made bright and hard. The music of their going,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How good to hear!⁠—though mournful beyond knowing;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The low-toned chanting of the Crows and Rees,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The guidons whipping in a stiff south breeze", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Prophetical of thunder-brewing weather,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The chiming spurs and bits and crooning leather,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The shoe calks clinking on the scattered stone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, fusing all, the rolling undertone", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of hoofs by hundreds rhythmically blent⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The diapason of an instrument", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Strung taut for battle music.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So they passed.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Custer, waking from a dream at last", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With still some glory of it in his eyes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shook hands around and said his last goodbyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And swung a leg across his dancing bay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That champed the snaffle, keen to be away", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where all the others were. Then Gibbon spoke,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Jocosely, but with something in the joke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of its own pleasantry incredulous:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Now don’t be greedy, Custer! Wait for us!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Custer laughed and gave the bay his head.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“I won’t!” he cried. Perplexed at what he said,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They watched the glad bay smoking up the draw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And heard the lusty welcoming hurrah", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That swept along the column. When it died,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The melancholy pack mules prophesied", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ghost-mules answered.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now it came to pass,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That late June morning on the Greasy Grass,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Two men went fishing, warriors of the Sioux;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, lonesome in the silence of the two,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A youngster pictured battles on the sand.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Once more beneath the valor of his hand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The execrated troopers, blotted out,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Became a dust. Then, troubled with a doubt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He ventured: “Uncle, will they find us here⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The soldiers?” ’Twas a buzzing in the ear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Red Hawk where he brooded on his cast.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“The wind is coming up,” he said at last;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“The sky grows dusty.” “Then the fish won’t bits,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Said Running Wolf. “There may be rain tonight”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Said Red Hawk, falling silent. Bravely then", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The youngster wrought himself a world of men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where nothing waited on a wind of whim,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But everything, obedient to him,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fell justly. All the white men in the world", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were huddled there, and round about them swirled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "More warriors than a grownup might surmise.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The pony-thunder and the battle-cries,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The whine of arrows eager for their marks", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Drowned out the music of the meadowlarks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rising gale that teased the cottonwoods", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To set them grumbling in their whitened hoods,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The chatter of a little waterfall.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "These pebbles⁠—see!⁠—were Crazy Horse and Gall;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here Crow King raged, and Black Moon battled there!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This yellow pebble⁠—look!⁠—was Yellow Hair;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This drab one with a little splotch of red,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Gray Fox, Crook! Ho ho! And both were dead;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And white men fell about them every place⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The leafage of the autumn of a race⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till all were down. And when their doom was sealed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The little victor danced across the field", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Amid the soundless singing of a throng.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The brief joy died, for there was something wrong", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About this battle. Mournfully came back", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That other picture of a dawn attack⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The giant horses rearing in the fogs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of their own breath; the yelping of the dogs;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The screaming rabble swarming up the rise;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The tangled terror in his mother’s eyes;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The flaming lodges and the bloody snow.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Provokingly oblivious of woe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The two still eyed the waters and were dumb.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“But will they find us, Uncle? Will they come?”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now Red Hawk grunted, heaving at his line,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, wrought of flying spray and morning-shine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A spiral rainbow flashed along the brook.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Hey hey!” said Red Hawk, staring at his hook,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“He got my bait! Run yonder to the bluff", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And catch some hoppers, Hohay. Get enough", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And you shall see how fish are caught today!”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Half-heartedly the youngster stole away", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across a brawling riffle, climbed the steep", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And gazed across the panoramic sweep", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of rolling prairie, tawny in the drouth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To where the Big Horns loomed along the south,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No more than ghosts of mountains in the dust.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Up here the hot wind, booming gust on gust,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made any nook a pleasant place to dream.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You could not see the fishers by the stream;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And you were grown so tall that, looking down", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the trees, you saw most all the town", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Strung far along the valley. First you saw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Cheyennes yonder opposite the draw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That yawned upon the ford⁠—a goodly sight!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So many and so mighty in a fight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And always faithful brothers to the Sioux!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Trees hid the Brulé village, but you knew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twas half a bow-shot long from end to end.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then Ogalalas filled a river bend,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And next the Minneconjoux did the same.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A little farther south the Sans Arc came,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And they were neighbors to the Hunkpapas.⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The blackened smoke-vents, flapping in the flaws,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were like a startled crow flock taking wing.⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some Ogalalas played at toss-the-ring", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many idlers crowded round to see.⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The grazing ponies wandered lazily", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the flat and up the rolling west.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now, guiltily remembering his quest,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He trotted farther up the naked hill,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dropped down a gully where the wind was still⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And came upon a hopping army there!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They swarmed, they raged⁠—but Hohay didn’t care;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For suddenly it seemed the recent climb", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had been a scramble up the height of time", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Hohay’s name was terror in the ears", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of evil peoples. Seizing weeds for spears,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He charged the soldiers with a dreadful shout.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The snapping of their rifles all about", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Might daunt a lesser hero. Never mind;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His medicine made all their bullets blind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ’twas a merry slaughter. Then at last", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The shining glory of the vision passed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And hoppers were but hoppers as before,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And he, a very little boy once more,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stood dwarfed and lonely on a windy rise.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sun was nearly up the dusty skies.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twas white with heat and had a funny stare⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All face! The wind had blown away its hair.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It looked afraid; as though the sun should fear!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now, squinting downward through the flying blear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He scanned the town. And suddenly the old", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Remembered dawn of terror struck him cold.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like startled ants that leave a stricken mound", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In silence that is felt as panic sound", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By one who sees, the squaws and children poured", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the valley northward past the ford;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And men were chasing ponies every place,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While many others ran, as in a race,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To southward.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Hohay, taking to his heels,", "indent": 8 }, { "text": "Made homeward like a cottontail that feels", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A kiote pant and whimper at his tail.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He reached the bluff rim, scrambled to the vale", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And crossed the stream. The fishermen were gone.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A hubbub in the village led him on", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pell-mell among the snatching underwood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till, checked as by a wall of sound, he stood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Apant and dripping in the howling town.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A bent old man there hobbled up and down", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon a staff and sang a cackling song", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of how his heart was young again and strong;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But no one heeded. Women ran with guns", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bows and war clubs, screaming for their sons", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And husbands. Men were mounting in a whirl", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of manes and tales to vanish in a swirl", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of scattered sand; and ever louder blew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The singing wind of warriors riding through", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To battle. Hohay watched them, mouth agape,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until he felt a hand upon his nape", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That shoved him north, and someone shouted “Run!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He scampered.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Meanwhile, nearer to the sun,", "indent": 8 }, { "text": "A rifle shot beyond the village end,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came Reno’s troopers pouring round a bend,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their carbines ready at their saddle bows.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A bugle yammered and a big dust rose", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And horses nickered as the fours swung wide", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In battle order; and the captains cried,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And with a running thunder of hurrahs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The long line stormed upon the Hunkpapas", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Strung thin across the open flat. They fled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like feeble ghosts of men already dead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beneath the iron feet that followed there;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For now they deemed the far-famed Yellow Hair,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Wolf of Washita, with all his pack", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Potential in the dust cloud at his back,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bore down upon them.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Flame along a slough", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before a howling wind, the terror grew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As momently increased the flying mass,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For all the others running up were grass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before that flame; till men became aware", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of how another voice was booming there,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Outsoaring Panic’s, smashing through the brawl", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of hoofs and wind and rifles.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "It was Gall.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A night wind blowing when the stars are dim,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His big black gelding panted under him;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And scarce he seemed a man of mortal race,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His naked body and his massive face", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Serene as hewn from time-forgotten rock,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Despite the horse’s rearing to the shock", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of surging men. Boy-hearted warriors took", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "New courage from the father in his look", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And listened in a sudden lull of sound.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“The foe is there!” he shouted. “Turn around!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Die here today!” And everywhere he rode", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A suck of men grew after him and flowed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To foeward.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now it seemed the routed fear", "indent": 7 }, { "text": "Had joined the halted troops. They ceased to cheer.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dismounting with their right upon the trees", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the river, and the Rickarees", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon their left, they flung a blazing dam", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the valley. Like a river jam", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The eager rabble deepened on the front,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For other hundreds, howling to the hunt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were dashing up with ponies. Then they say", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A sound was heard as when a jam gives way", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before a heaped up freshet of the Spring,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ponies in a torrent smote the wing", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where, mounted yet, the little Ree band stood.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now those, remembering where life was good,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Regretting that they ever chose to roam", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So far from kindly faces, started home", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Without farewells; and round the crumpled flank", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Sioux came thronging, bending back the rank", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the pivot of the farther troop,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till, crowded in a brushy river loup,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The soldiers fought bewildered and forlorn.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behind them from across the Little Horn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The long range rifles on the bluff rim spat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A hornet swarm among them; and the flat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before them swam with ponies on the run⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A vertigo of shadows; for the sun", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went moony in the dust and disappeared.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Inverted faces of a nightmare leered", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beneath the necks of ponies hurtling past;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And every surge of horsemen seemed the last,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So well their daring fed upon their rage.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "It might have been a moment or an age", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The troopers gripped that slipping edge of life,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When some along the left saw Bloody Knife,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By Reno, straighten from his fighting squat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And heard him scream, and saw the wound he got", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spew brains between the fingers clutching there.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then like a drowning man with hands in air", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He sank. And some who fought nearby have said", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Major’s face, all spattered with the red", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of that snuffed life, went chalky, and his shout", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Scarce reached the nearer troopers round about:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Back to the bluffs!” But when a few arose", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To do his will, they say he raged at those:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Get down! Get down!” Then once again he cried:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Get to the bluffs!”⁠—And was the first to ride.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now some along the right, who had not heard,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But saw the mounting, passed a shouted word", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That groped, a whisper, through the roaring smoke:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“We’re going to charge!” And where it fell, it broke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The ragged line. Men scrambled to the rear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where now the plunging horses shrieked with fear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fought their holding “fours”⁠—nor all in vain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For whole quadrigae, fastened bit to rein,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ramped down that stormy twilight of the Sioux.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The nearest empty saddle seat would do", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For any lucky finder. Rout or charge⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What matter? All along the river marge", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The man storm raged, and all the darkened vale", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was tumult. To retreat was to assail,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Assault was flight. The craven and the bold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Seemed one that moment where the loud dust rolled,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Death-strewing, up along the Little Horn.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "About the loup a mockery of morn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Broke in upon the gloaming of the noon,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And horseless troopers, starting from the swoon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of battle, saw, and knew themselves alone", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And heard the wounded wailing and the moan", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of dying men around them. Even these,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forlorn among the bullet-bitten trees,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were scarce less lucky than the fleeing ranks", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With crowding furies snapping at their flanks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Death in the rear and frantic hope ahead.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Twas like a bison hunt, the Sioux have said,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When few bulls battle and the fat cows run", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Less fleet than slaughter. Hidden from the sun,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How many a boy, struck motherless, belied", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The whiskered cheek; what heroism died,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fronting the wild white glory!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Funk or fight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lost in the noon’s anomaly of night,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The troopers struggled, groping for a ford.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But more and more the pressure of the horde", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bore leftward, till the steep-banked river spread", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before them, and the bluffs that loomed ahead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were like the domes of heaven to the damned.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A shrinking moment, and the flood was jammed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With men and horses thrashing belly deep;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And down upon them, jostled to the leap,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rear cascaded. Many-noted pain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sang medley in the roaring rifle rain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That swept the jetting water, gust on gust.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many a Sioux, gone wild with slaughter lust,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Plunged after. Madmen grappled in the flood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And tumbling in the current, streaked with blood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Drank deep together and were satisfied.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now scrambling out upon the further side,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The hunted troopers blundered at a steep", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "More suited to the flight of mountain sheep", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than horses; for a narrow pony trail,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That clambered up a gully from the vale,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Immediately clogged with brutes and men.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spent horses skittered back to strive again,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Red-flanked and broken-hearted. Many bore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their riders where no horse had gone before,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor ever shall go. Bullets raked the slope,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And from the valley to the heights of hope", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The air was dirty with the arrow-snow.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The heights of hope? Alas, that stair of woe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Strewn with the bleeding offal of the rout,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Led only to an eminence of doubt,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A more appalling vision of their plight;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For in the rear and on the left and right", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The nearer bluffs were filling with the Sioux,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And still along the flat beneath them blew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dust of thousands yelping for the kill.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "They say that good men broke upon the hill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wept as children weep. And there were some", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who stared about them empty eyed and dumb,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As though it didn’t matter. Others hurled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Profane irrelevancies at the world", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or raved about the jamming of their guns.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yet there lacked not level-headed ones,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unruffled shepherds of the flock, who strove", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For order in the milling of the drove", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With words to soothe or cheer, or sting with scorn.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now up the valley of the Little Horn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wild news came crying from the lower town", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of other soldiers yonder riding down", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the guardless village from the east;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And every tongue that sped the news increased", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The meaning of it. Victory forsook", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Big hearts that withered. Lo, the Gray Fox, Crook,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Returning for revenge⁠—and not alone!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How many camps along the Yellowstone", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were emptied on the valley there below?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The whipped were but a sprinkle of the foe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And now the torrent was about to burst!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With everything to know, they knew the worst,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And saw the clearer in that no one saw.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then broke a flying area of awe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the rabble like a patch of sun", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the troubled corn when gray clouds run", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And in the midst a glowing rift is blown.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pressed back before the plunging white-faced roan", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Crazy Horse, men brightened. How they knew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That lean, swift fighting-spirit of the Sioux,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wizard eyes, the haggard face and thin,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Transfigured by a burning from within", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Despite the sweat-streaked paint and battle grime!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Old men would ponder in the wane of time", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That lifting vision and alluring cry:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“There never was a better day to die!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Come on, Dakotas! Cowards to the rear!”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Some hundreds yonder held the net of fear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Round Reno’s hill; but in the cloud that spread", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the valley where the fleet roan led", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were thousands.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now the feeble and the young,", "indent": 9 }, { "text": "The mothers and the maidens, terror-flung", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beyond the lower village to the west,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had seen the soldiers loom along a crest", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beyond the town, and, heading down a swale", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By fours, with guidons streaming in the gale,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Approach the ford. ’Twas Custer with the grays,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A sorrel troop and thrice as many bays⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Two hundred and a handful at the most;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But ’twas the bannered onset of a host", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To those who saw and fled. Nor could they know", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The numbers and the valiance of the foe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Down river where the bulls of war were loud;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For even then that thunder and the cloud", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came northward. Were they beaten? Had they won?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What devastation, darkening the sun,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was tearing down the valley? On it roared", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And darkled; deepened at the lower ford", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And veered cyclonic up the yawning draw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To eastward. Now the breathless people saw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dusty ponies darting from the van", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And swarming up the left. The guns began,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A running splutter. Yonder to the south", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The big dust boiling at a coulee’s mouth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was pouring ponies up around the right.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grown dimmer in the falling battle-night,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The stormy guidons of the troopers tossed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Retreating upward, lessened and were lost", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Amid a whirling cloud that topped the hill.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And steadily the valley spouted still", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The double stream of warriors.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then a shout", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Enringed the battle, and the scene went out", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In rumbling dust⁠—as though a mine were lit", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beneath the summit and the belch of it", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gloomed bellowing. A windy gloaming spread", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the ridges flicked with errant lead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wayward arrows groping for a mark.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And horses, hurtled from the central dark,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With empty saddles charged upon the day.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Meanwhile on Reno’s hill four miles away", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men heartened to a rousing cheer had seen", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bays and blacks and sorrels of Benteen,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hoof-heavy with their unavailing quest", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the valleys to the south and west,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Toil upward. Unmolested by the foe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The pack mules, trumpeting “We told you so,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Trudged in a little later. By the cheers", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It might have been reunion after years;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And was in truth; for there were graying locks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That night, to mock the pedantry of clocks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Untroubled by the ages life can pack", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Between the ticks.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The fire had fallen slack", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the watching summits round about", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And in a maze of wonderment and doubt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men scanned the north that darkled as with war.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“What was it that the Major waited for?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He’d best be doing something pretty quick", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or there’d be Custer with a pointed stick", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To look for him!” So growled a bolder few.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But many thought of little else to do", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than just to dodge the leaden wasp that kills", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sent over by the snipers on the hills", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In fitful swarms.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now like a bellowed word", "indent": 9 }, { "text": "The miles made inarticulate, they heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A sound of volley-firing. There! and there!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hoarse with a yet incredible despair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That incoherent cry of kin to kin", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grew big above the distant battle din⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sequent breakers of a moaning sea.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And twice the murmuring veil of mystery", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was rent and mended. Then the tearing drawl", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was heard no more where Fury, striding tall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made one in dust the heavens and the earth.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“He’s pitching into them for all he’s worth,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some ventured;⁠—“was there nothing else to do", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But hug that hill?”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then suddenly there grew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A voice of wrath, and many lying near,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who heard it, looked⁠—and it was Captain Wier", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By Reno yonder; and the place went still:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Then, Major, if you won’t, by God I will,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there’ll be more to say if we get back!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They saw him fling a leg across his black", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And take the northward steep with face set grim;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all the black horse troop rode after him", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the gulch to vanish on a rise.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Two miles away from where the smudgy skies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of afternoon anticipated night,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They halted on a space-commanding height", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, squinting through the dusty air ahead,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were puzzled. For the silence of the dead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had fallen yonder⁠—only now and then", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A few shots crackled. Groups of mounted men⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not troopers⁠—by the rifting dust revealed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were scattered motionless about the field,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As wearily contented with a work", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Well done at last.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then suddenly the murk", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Began to boil and murmur, like a storm", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before the wind comes. Ponies in a swarm", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were spreading out across the ridgy land", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against the blacks.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "By now the whole command", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was coming up, and not a whit too soon;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For once again the sun became a moon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Amid the dust of thousands bearing down.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now farther back upon a bleak bluff crown", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The troop of Godfrey waited for the fight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not doubting that their comrades held the right,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When orders, riding with an urgent heel,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Arrived with more of prudence to reveal", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than pluck: Withdraw at once! A startled stare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made plain how all the flanking hills were bare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And not a sign of Reno in the rear!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Just then the fleeing troops of French and Wier", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came roaring down across a ridge in front", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, close upon their heels, the howling hunt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made dimmer yet the summit of the slope.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Godfrey, seeing very little hope", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If all should flee those thousands, overjoyed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With some great coup, dismounted and deployed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To fight on foot, and sent the horses back.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And so he dared the brunt of the attack,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Retreating slowly like a wounded bear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With yelping dogs before him everywhere", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Regardful of the eager might at bay.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And so the whole command got back that day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of big despairs; and men remember still.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then all the ridges circling Reno’s hill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were crowded. In among the flattened men,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now desperately fighting one to ten,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hell hornets snarled and feathered furies crooned", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A death song; and the sun was like a wound", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wherewith the day bled dizzy. Yet from all", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The muddled nightmare of it, men recall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Deeds brighter for the years: how Captain French,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like any stodgy tailor on his bench,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sat cross-legged at the giddy edge of life", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Serenely picking with a pocket knife", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The shell-jammed guns and loading them anew;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How, seemingly enamoured of the view,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Deliberate, Johnsonian of mien,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His briar drawing freely, strolled Benteen", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along his fighting line; how Wallace, Wier", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Godfrey yonder, fearing only fear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Walked round among the troopers, cheering them.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And some remember Happy Jack of M,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The way his gusty laughter served to melt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The frost of terror, though the joy he felt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Seemed less to mark a hero than a fool.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And once, they say, an ammunition mule", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Broke loose and bolted, braying, as he went,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Defiance and a traitorous intent", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To quit the Whites forever. Then they tell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How Sergeant Hanley with an Irish yell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Took horse and followed, jealous for the pack;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all the line roared after him, “Come back!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Come back, you fool!” But Hanley went ahead.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At times you hardly saw him for the lead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That whipped the dust up. Blindly resolute,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The traitor with the Irish in pursuit", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Struck up along a hostile ridge that burned", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And smoked and bellowed. Presently he turned", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And panted home, an image of remorse;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Hanley, leaping from his winded horse,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lay down and went to work among the rest.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The wounded day bled ashen in the west;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The firing dwindled in the dusk and ceased;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The frightened stars came peeking from the east", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To see what anguish moaned. The wind went down⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A lull of death. But yonder in the town", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All night the war drums flouted that despair", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the hill, and dancers in the glare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of fires that towered filled the painted dark", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With demon exultation, till the lark", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of doom should warble. Heavy-lidded eyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Saw often in the sage along a rise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The loom of troops. If any shouted “Look!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And pointed, all the others cheered for Crook", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or Terry coming; and the bugles cried", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To mocking echoes. When the sick hope died,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They fell to sullen labor, scraping up", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The arid earth with plate and drinking cup", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against the dreaded breaking of the day.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And here and there among the toilers lay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The winners of an endless right to shirk;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While many panted at a harder work,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wage whereof is nothing left to buy.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "It seemed that all were men about to die,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forlornly busy there among the dead⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each man his sexton. Petulant with dread,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They talked of Custer, grumbling at a name", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Already shaping on the lips of Fame", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To be a deathless bugle-singing soon.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For no one guessed what now the tardy moon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was poring over with a face of fright", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Out yonder: naked bodies gleaming white", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The whole way to the summit of the steep", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Silence, brooding on a tumbled heap", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of men and horses, listened for a sound.⁠ ⁠…", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A wounded troop horse sniffed the bloody ground", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ghosts of horses nickered when he neighed.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now scarcely had the prairie owls, afraid", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of morning, ceased, or waiting hushes heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A timid, unauthoritative bird", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Complain how late the meadowlarks awoke,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When suddenly the dreaded fury broke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About the sleepless troopers, digging still.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It raked the shallow trenches on the hill;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It beat upon the little hollow where", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mules and horses, tethered in a square", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About the wounded, roared and plunged amain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tight-tailed against no pasture-loving rain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many fell and floundered. What of night", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From such a morning? For the hostile light", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Increased the fury, and the battle grew.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "That day it seemed the very sun was Sioux.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The heat, the frenzy and the powder gas", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wreaked torture. Men were chewing roots of grass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For comfort ere the day had well begun.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bare to the grim mid-malice of the sun,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wounded raved for water. Far below,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cool with the melting of the mountain snow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The river gleamed; and, queasy with the smell", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of bodies bloating in a stew of hell,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men croaked about it. Better to be killed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Half way to yonder joy than perish grilled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Between that grid of earth and burning air!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So nineteen troopers volunteered to dare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A grisly race. The twentieth who ran,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Invisible and fleeter than a man,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With hoofs of peril flicked the dusty sod", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where pluckily the sprinting water squad", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made streamward. Giddy with a wound he got,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A trooper tumbled, and his cooking pot", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pursued the others with a bounding roll.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A second runner crumpled near the goal.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And when the sprawling winners drank, they say", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bullets whipped the water into spray", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About their heads; for yonder in the brush", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Sioux kept watch, but dared not make a rush", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Because of marksmen stationed on the bluff.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And when the greedy drinkers had enough,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With brimming kettles and the filled canteens", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They toiled along the tortuous ravines", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And panted up a height that wasn’t Fame’s.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men still recall the water; but the names", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Enrich that silence where the millions go.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The shadows had begun to overflow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their stagnant puddles on the nightward side,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When presently the roar of battle died", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On all the circling summits there. Perplexed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With what the wily foe might purpose next,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The troopers lay and waited. Still the swoon", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of silence held the stifling afternoon,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Save for a low monotony of pain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The keening of the gnats about the slain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That festered. Nothing happened. Shadows crept", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A little farther nightward. Many slept,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dead to the sergeant’s monitory shake;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And some, for very weariness awake,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Got up and dared to stretch a leg at last,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When from the summits broke a rifle blast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That banished sleep and drove the strollers in.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Abruptly as it started, ceased the din", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all the hills seemed empty as before.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And, breath by breath, the weary waiting wore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The hours out. Every minute, loath to pass,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forewarned the next of some assault in mass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Preparing in the hush. A careless head", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above a horse’s carcass drew the lead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of lurking marksmen. What would be the end?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The prayed-for dark itself might prove no friend", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For all its pity.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now the early slant", "indent": 8 }, { "text": "Of evening made the thirsty horses pant", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And raise a running whimper of despair,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When, seemingly ignited by the glare,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The very prairie smouldered. Spire by spire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until the whole fat valley was afire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Smoke towered in the windless air and grew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where late the league long village of the Sioux", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lay hidden from the watchers on the hill;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And like the shadow of a monster ill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Untimely gloaming fell across the height.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet nothing but the failing of the light", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the distant summits came to pass.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The muffled murmur of the burning grass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was all the reeking valley had of sound;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And when the troopers dared to walk around,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No spluttering of rifles drove them back.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The shadows in the draws were getting black", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When someone lifted up a joyous cry", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That set the whole band staring where the sky,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To southward of the smoke, remembered day.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there they saw, already miles away⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A pictographic scrawl upon the glow⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The tangled slant and clutter of travaux", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By crowding hundreds; ponies that pursued,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A crawling, milling, tossing multitude,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A somber river brawling out of banks;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And glooms of horsemen flowing on the flanks⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The whole Sioux village fleeing with the light", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To where the Big Horn Mountains glimmered white", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And low along the south!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The horses neighed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To swell the happy noise their masters made.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The pack mules sang the only song they knew.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And summits, late familiar with the Sioux,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Proclaimed a new allegiance, cheer on cheer.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For who could doubt that news of Terry near", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had driven off the foe?", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Moon wore by,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And in the rainless waning of July", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ten thousand hearts were troubled where the creeks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Young from the ancient winter of the peaks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Romped in the mountain meadows green as May.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The very children lost the heart to play,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Awed by the shadow of an unseen thing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As covies, when the shadow of a wing", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forebodes a pounce of terror from the skies.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They saw it in the bravest father’s eyes⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That shadow⁠—in the gentlest mother’s face;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unwitting how there fell upon a race", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The twilight of irreparable wrong.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The drums had fallen silent with the song,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And valiant tales, late eager to be told,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were one with all things glorious and old", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And dear and gone forever from the Sioux.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "For now the hunted prairie people knew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How powerful the Gray Fox camp had grown", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On Goose Creek; how along the Yellowstone", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mounted soldiers and the walking ones⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A multitude⁠—had got them wagon guns,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of which the voice was thunder and the stroke,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far off, a second thunder and a smoke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That bit and tore. A little while, and then", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Those open jaws, toothed terribly with men,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would move together, closing to the bite.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What hope was left in anything but flight?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And whither? O the world was narrow now!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "South, east, the rat-like nibbling of the plow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had left them but a little way to go.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mountains of the never melting snow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Walled up the west. Beyond the northern haze,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There lay a land of unfamiliar ways,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dark tongues and alien eyes.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "As waters keep", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their wonted channels, yearning for the deep,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The homeless rabble took the ancient road.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From bluff to bluff the Rosebud valley flowed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their miles of ponies; and the pine-clad heights", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were sky-devouring torches in the nights", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behind them, and a rolling gloom by day;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And prairies, kindled all along the way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bloomed balefully and blackened. Noon was dark,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Night starless, and the fleeing meadowlark", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forgot the morning. Where the Bluestone runs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their dust bore east; and seldom did the suns", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behold them going for the seed they strewed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To crop the rearward prairie solitude", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With black starvation even for the crow.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Creeks, stricken as with fever, ceased to flow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And languished in a steaming ashen mire.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But more than grass was given to the fire⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O memories no spring could render young!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And so it was that, marching down the Tongue,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Gray Fox, seeking for the hostile bands,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Saw nothing but the desolated lands", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Black to the sky; and when a dreary week", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had brought him to the mouth of Bluestone Creek,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lo, Terry with another empty tale!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Broad as a road to ruin ran the trail", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of driven pony herds, a livid scar", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon a vast cadaver, winding far", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To eastward as the tallest hill might look.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thither pressed the horse and foot of Crook,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their pack mules, lighter for a greater speed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With scant provisions for a fortnight’s need", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon their saddles.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Burning August waned", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About the toiling regiments. It rained⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A sodden, chill monotony of rains⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As though the elements had cursed the plains,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And now that flame had stricken, water struck.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The scarecrow horses struggled with the suck", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of gumbo flats and heartbreak hills of clay;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many a bone-bag fell beside the way", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Too weak to rise, for still the draws were few", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That were not blackened. Crows and buzzards knew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How little eager claws and whetted beaks", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Availed them where so many hollow cheeks", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had bulged about a brief and cookless feast.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Still wearily the main trail lengthened east", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By hungry days and fireless bivouacs;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And more and more diverging pony tracks,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To north and south, and tangent lodge pole trails", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Revealed the hunted scattering as quails", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before a dreaded hunter. Eastward still", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They staggered, nourished by a doggèd will,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Past where a little river apes in mud", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And name the genius of a titan flood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That drinks it. Crumbling pinnacles of awe", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Looked down upon them; domes of wonder saw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The draggled column slowly making head", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against the muck; the drooping horses, led,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Well loaded with their saddles; empty packs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Become a cruel burden on the backs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of plodding mules with noses to the ground.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the deeps of Davis Creek they wound,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To where the Camel’s Hump and Rosebud Butte", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behold the Heart’s head. Here the long pursuit,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It seemed, had come to nothing after all.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The multitude of Crazy Horse and Gall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had vanished in that God-forsaken place", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And matched their fagged pursuers for a race", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With something grimmer than a human foe.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Four marches east across the dim plateau", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fort Lincoln lured them. Twice as many days", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beyond the dripping low September haze,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Due south across the yet uncharted lands,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lay Deadwood, unprotected from the bands", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of prowling hostiles. ’Twas enough for Crook.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Half-heartedly the ragged column took", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The way of duty. And the foe appeared!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where, like a god-built stadium, the tiered", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Age-carven Slim Buttes watch the Rabbit’s Lip", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Go groping for the ocean, in the drip", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ooze of sodden skies the battle raged;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And presences, millennially aged", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In primal silence, shouted at the sight.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until the rifles gashed the front of night", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With sanguinary wounds, they fought it out;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And darkness was the end of it, and doubt", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And drizzle. Unrejoicing victors knew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What enemy, more mighty than the Sioux,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would follow with no lagging human feet;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And early morning saw them in retreat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before that foe. Above their buried slain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A thousand horses trampled in the rain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That none might know the consecrated ground", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To violate it.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Up and up they wound", "indent": 7 }, { "text": "Among the foggy summits, till the van", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was checked with awe. Inimical to Man,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Below them spread a featureless immense,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "More credibly a dream of impotence", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Than any earthly country to be crossed⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A gloomy flat, illimitably lost", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In gauzes of the downpour.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Thither strove", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The gaunt battalions. And the chill rain drove", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unceasingly. Through league on league of mire", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men straggled into camps without a fire", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To wolf their slaughtered horses in the red;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all the wallow of the way they fled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was strewn with crowbaits dying in the bogs.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About them in the forest of the fogs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lurked Crazy Horse, a cougar mad for blood;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And scarce the rearguard-battles in the mud", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Aroused the sullen plodders to the fore.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Deer’s Ears loomed and vanished in the pour;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Haystack Buttes stole off along the right;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And men grew old between a night and night", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before their feeble toil availed to raise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Black Hills, set against the evil days", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About a paradise of food and rest.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now Crazy Horse’s people, turning west,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Retraced the trail of ruin, sick for home.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where myriads of the bison used to roam", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fatten in the golden autumn drowse,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A few rejected bulls and barren cows", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grew yet a little leaner. Every place", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The good old earth, with ashes on her face,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Was like a childless mother in despair;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though still she kept with jealous, loving care", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some little hoard of all her youth had known", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against the dear returning of her own;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But where the starving herd of ponies passed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The little shielded hollows, lately grassed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were stricken barren even as with fire.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And so they reached the place of their desire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The deep-carved valley where the Powder flows.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here surely there was peace.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But when the snows", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came booming where the huddled village stood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And ponies, lean with gnawing cottonwood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were slain to fill the kettles, Dull Knife came,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The great Cheyenne. The same⁠—O not the same", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As he who fought beside the Greasy Grass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And slew his fill of enemies! Alas,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The beggar in his eyes! And very old", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He seemed, for hunger and the pinch of cold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were on him; and the rabble at his back⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Despairing hundreds⁠—lacked not any lack", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That flesh may know and live. The feeble wail", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of babies put an edge upon the tale", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That Dull Knife told.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“There was a fight,” he said.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“I set my winter village at the head", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Willow Creek. The mountains there are tall.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A canyon stood about me for a wall;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And it was good to hear my people sing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For there was none that wanted anything", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That makes men happy. We were all asleep.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The cold was sharp; the snow was very deep.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What enemy could find us? We awoke.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A thunder and a shouting and a smoke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were there among us, and a swarm of foes⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pawnees, Shoshones and Arapahoes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And soldiers, many soldiers. It was night", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About us, and we fought them in the light", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of burning lodges till the town was lost", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all our plenty. Bitter was the frost", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And most of us were naked from the bed.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now many of our little ones are dead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of cold and hunger. Shall the others die?”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There was a light in Crazy Horse’s eye", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like moony ice. The other spoke again.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“As brothers have Dakota and Cheyenne", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made war together. Help us. You have seen", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We can not live until the grass is green,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My brother!”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then the other face grew stone;", "indent": 8 }, { "text": "The hard lips moved: “A man must feed his own,”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Said Crazy Horse, and turned upon his heel.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But now the flint of him had found the steel", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In Dull Knife, and the flare was bad to see.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Tashunka Witko, dare to look at me", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That you may not forget me. We shall meet.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The soldiers yonder have enough to eat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And I will come, no beggar, with the grass!”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And silently the people saw him pass", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the valley where the snow lay blue,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The plodding, silent, ragamuffin crew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behind him. So the evil days began.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now Crazy Horse, they say, was like a man", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who, having seen a ghost, must look and look", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And brood upon the empty way it took", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To nowhere; and he scarcely ate at all;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there was that about him like a wall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To shut men out. He seemed no longer young.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Bleak January found them on the Tongue", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In search of better forage for the herd⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A failing quest. And hither came the word", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of many walking soldiers coming down", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With wagon guns upon the starving town", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That might not flee; for whither could they go", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With ponies pawing feebly in the snow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To grow the leaner? Mighty in despair,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They waited on a lofty summit there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above the valley.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Raw gray dawn revealed", "indent": 9 }, { "text": "A scaly serpent crawling up a field", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of white beneath them. Leisurely it neared,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Resolving into men of frosty beard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With sloping rifles swinging to the beat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And melancholy fifing of their feet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the frost; and shrill the wagon tires", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sang rearward. Now the soldiers lighted fires", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And had their breakfast hot, as who should say:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“What hurry? It is early in the day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there is time for what we came to do.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With wistful eyes the rabble of the Sioux", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beheld the eating; knew that they defied", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In vain their own misgivings when they cried:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Eat plenty! You will never eat again!”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It was not so; for those were devil men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who needed nothing and were hard to kill.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The wagon-guns barked sharply at the hill", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To bite the summit, always shooting twice;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And scrambling upward through the snow and ice", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came doggedly, without a sign of fear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The infantry of Miles. They didn’t cheer,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They didn’t hurry, and they didn’t stop,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For all the rifles roaring at the top,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until the gun-butt met the battle-ax.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still fighting with their children at their backs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Sioux gave slowly. Wind came on to blow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A hurrying northwester, blind with snow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And in the wild white dusk of it they fled.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But when they reached the Little Powder’s head,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So much of all their little had been lost,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So well had wrought their hunger and the frost,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "One might have thought ’twas Dull Knife coming there.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The country had a cold, disowning stare;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The burned-off valleys could not feed their own.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The moon was like a frozen bubble, blown", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Along the rim of February nights,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When Spotted Tail, the lover of the Whites,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Came there with mighty words. His cheeks were full,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His belly round. He spoke of Sitting Bull", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Gall defeated, driven far away", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the line; of Red Cloud getting gray", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before his time⁠—a cougar in a cage,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Self-eaten by a silent, toothless rage", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That only made the watching sentry smile.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And still the story saddened. All the while", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The scattered Sioux were coming in to save", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their children with the food the soldiers gave", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And laying down their guns and making peace.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He told how Dull Knife’s fury did not cease", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But grew upon the soldier food he ate;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And how his people fattened, nursing hate", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For Crazy Horse. And many more than these", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But waited for the grass⁠—the Loup Pawnees,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Utes, the Winnebagoes and the Crows,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shoshones, Bannocks and Arapahoes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With very many more Dakotas too!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "“Now what could Crazy Horse’s people do", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against them all?” said Spotted Tail, the Wise.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And with the ancient puzzle in his eyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That only death may riddle; gazing long", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now first upon the fat one in the wrong", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And now upon the starving in the right,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The other found an answer: “I could fight!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And I could fight till all of us were dead.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But now I have no powder left,” he said;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“I can not fight. Tell Gray Fox what you saw;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That I am only waiting for a thaw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To bring my people in.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And now ’twas done.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spring found the waiting fort at Robinson", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A half-moon ere the Little Powder knew;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, doubting still what Crazy Horse might do", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When tempted by the herald geese a-wing", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To join the green rebellion of the spring,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The whole frontier was troubled. April came,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And once again his undefeated name", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rode every wind. Ingeniously the West", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wrought verities from what the East had guessed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of what the North knew. Eagerly deceived,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The waiting South progressively believed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wilder story. April wore away;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fleet couriers, arriving day by day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With but the farthing mintage of the fact,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bought credit slowly in that no one lacked", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The easy gold of marvelous surmise.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For, gazing northward where the secret skies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were moody with a coming long deferred,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whoever spoke of Crazy Horse, still heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ten thousand hoofs.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But yonder, with the crow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And kiote to applaud his pomp of woe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The last great Sioux rode down to his defeat.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And now his people huddled in the sleet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Dog Creek and the Little Powder met.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With faces ever sharper for the whet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of hunger, silent in the driving rains,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They straggled out across the blackened plains", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Inyan Kara, mystically old,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Drew back a cloudy curtain to behold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Serene with Time’s indifference to men.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And now they tarried on the North Cheyenne", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To graze their feeble ponies, for the news", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of April there had wakened in the sloughs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A glimmering of pity long denied.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor would their trail across the bare divide", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grow dimmer with the summer, for the bleach", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of dwindled herds⁠—so hard it was to reach", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The South Cheyenne. O sad it was to hear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How all the pent-up music of the year", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Surged northward there the way it used to do!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In vain the catbird scolded at the Sioux;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The timid pewee queried them in vain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor might they harken to the whooping crane", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor heed the high geese calling them to come.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unwelcome waifs of winter, drab and dumb,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where ecstasy of sap and thrill of wing", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Made shift to flaunt some color or to sing", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The birth of joy, they toiled a weary way.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And giddy April sobered into May", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before they topped the summit looking down", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Upon the valley of the soldier’s town", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "At Robinson.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then eerily began", "indent": 7 }, { "text": "Among the lean-jowled warriors in the van", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The chant of peace, a supplicating wail", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That spread along the clutter of the trail", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Until the last bent straggler sang alone;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And camp dogs, hunger-bitten to the bone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Accused the heavens with a doleful sound;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But, silent still, with noses to the ground,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The laden ponies toiled to cheat the crows,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And famine, like a wag, had made of those", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A grisly jest. So Crazy Horse came in", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With twice a thousand beggars. And the din", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Died out, though here and there a dog still howled,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For now the mighty one, whom Fate had fouled,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dismounted, faced the silent double row", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of soldiers haughty with the glint and glow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of steel and brass. A little while he stood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As though bewildered in a haunted wood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of men and rifles all astare with eyes.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They saw a giant shrunken to the size", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of any sergeant. Now he met the glare", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of Dull Knife and his warriors waiting there", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With fingers itching at the trigger-guard.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How many comrade faces, strangely hard,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Were turned upon him! Ruefully he smiled,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The doubtful supplication of a child", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Caught guilty; loosed the bonnet from his head", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And cast it down. “I come for peace,” he said;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Now let my people eat.” And that was all.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The summer ripened. Presages of fall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now wanted nothing but the goose’s flight.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The goldenrods had made their torches bright", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Against the ghostly imminence of frost.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And one, long brooding on a birthright lost,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Remembered and remembered. O the time", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When all the prairie world was white with rime", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of mornings, and the lodge smoke towered straight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To meet the sunlight, coming over late", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For happy hunting! O the days, the days", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When winds kept silence in the far blue haze", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To hear the deep-grassed valleys running full", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With fading cows, and thunders of the bull", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the hills! Nights given to the feast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When big round moons came smiling up the east", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To listen to the drums, the dancing feet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The voices of the women, high and sweet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above the men’s!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And Crazy Horse was sad.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There wasn’t any food the white man had", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Could find his gnawing hunger and assuage.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some saw a blood-mad panther in a cage,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And some the sulking of a foolish pride,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For there were those who watched him narrow-eyed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The whole day long and listened for a word,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To shuttle in the warp of what they heard", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A woof of darker meaning.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then one day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A flying tale of battles far away", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And deeds to make men wonder stirred the land:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How Nez Perce Joseph led his little band,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With Howard’s eager squadrons in pursuit,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across the mountains of the Bitter Root", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To Big Hole Basin and the daylong fight;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And how his women, fleeing in the night,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Brought off the ponies and the children too.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O many a heart beat fast among the Sioux", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To hear the way he fled and fought and fled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Past Bannack, down across the Beaverhead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To Henry’s Lake, relentlessly pursued;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now swallowed by the dreadful solitude", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where still the Mighty Spirit shapes the dream", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With primal fires and prodigies of steam,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As when the fallow night was newly sown;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now reappearing down the Yellowstone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Undaunted yet and ever making less", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That thousand miles of alien wilderness", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Between a people’s freedom and their need!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "O there was virtue in the tale to feed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The withered heart and make it big again!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Not yet, not yet the ancient breed of men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had vanished from the aging earth! They say", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There came a change on Crazy Horse the day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Ogalala village buzzed the news.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So much to win and only life to lose;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bison making southward with the fall,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Joseph fighting up the way to Gall", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Sitting Bull!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Who knows the dream he had?", "indent": 9 }, { "text": "Much talk there was of how his heart was bad", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And any day some meditated deed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Might start an irresistible stampede", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the Sioux⁠—a human prairie-fire!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So back and forth along the talking wire", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fear chattered. Yonder, far away as morn,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mighty heard⁠—and heard the Little Horn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still roaring with the wind of Custer’s doom.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there were troopers moving in the gloom", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of midnight to the chaining of the beast;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But when the white light broke along the east,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There wasn’t any Ogalala town", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Crazy Horse had vanished!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Up and down", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dusty autumn panic horsemen spurred", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till all the border shuddered at the word", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of how that terror threatened every trail.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "They found him in the camp of Spotted Tail,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A lonely figure with a face of care.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“I am afraid of what might happen there”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He said. “So many listen what I say", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And look and look. I will not run away.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I want my people here. You have my guns.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But half a world away the mighty ones", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had spoken words like bullets in the dark", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That wreak the rage of blindness on a mark", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They can not know.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then spoke the one who led", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The soldiers: “Not a hair upon your head", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shall suffer any harm if you will go", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To Robinson for just a day or so", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And have a parley with the soldier chief.”", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He spoke believing and he won belief,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So Crazy Horse went riding down the west;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And neither he nor any trooper guessed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What doom now made a rutted wagon road", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The highway to a happier abode", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where all the dead are splendidly alive", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And summer lingers and the bison thrive", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forever.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "If the better hope be true,", "indent": 5 }, { "text": "There was a gate of glory yawning through", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sunset when the little cavalcade", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Approached the fort.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The populous parade,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The straining hush that somehow wasn’t peace,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bristling troops, the Indian police", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Drawn up as for a battle! What was wrong?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What made them hustle Crazy Horse along", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the gleaming bayonets and eyes?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There swept a look of quizzical surprise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Across his face. He struggled with the guard.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their grips were steel; their eyes were cold and hard⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like bayonets.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There was a door flung wide.", "indent": 8 }, { "text": "The soldier chief would talk with him inside", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all be well at last!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The stifling, dim", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Interior poured terror over him.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He blinked about⁠—and saw the iron bars.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "O nevermore to neighbor with the stars", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or know the simple goodness of the sun!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Did some swift vision of a doom begun", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Reveal the monstrous purpose of a lie⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The desert island and the alien sky,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The long and lonely ebbing of a life?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The glimmer of a whipped-out butcher knife", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dismayed the shrinking squad, and once again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men saw a face that many better men", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Had died to see! Brown arms that once were kind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A comrade’s arms, whipped round him from behind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went crimson with a gash and dropped aside.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“Don’t touch me! I am Crazy Horse!” he cried,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, leaping doorward, charged upon the world", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To meet the end. A frightened soldier hurled", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His weight behind a jabbing belly-thrust,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Crazy Horse plunged headlong in the dust,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A writhing heap. The momentary din", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of struggle ceased. The people, closing in,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went ominously silent for a space,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And one could hear men breathing round the place", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where lay the mighty. Now he strove to rise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The wide blind stare of anguish in his eyes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And someone shouted “Kill that devil quick!”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A throaty murmur and a running click", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of gun-locks woke among the crowding Sioux,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And many a soldier whitened. Well they knew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What pent-up hate the moment might release", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To drop upon the bungled farce of peace", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A bloody curtain.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "One began to talk;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His tongue was drunken and his face was chalk;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But when a half-breed shouted what he spoke", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The crowd believed, so few had seen the stroke,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor was there any bleeding of the wound.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "It seemed the chief had falleasick and swooned;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Perhaps a little rest would make him strong!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And silently they watched him borne along,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A sagging bundle, dear and mighty yet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though from the sharp face, beaded with the sweat", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of agony, already peered the ghost.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "They laid him in an office of the post,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And soldiers, forming in a hollow square,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Held back the people. Silence deepened there.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A little while it seemed the man was dead,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He lay so still. The west no longer bled;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Among the crowd the dusk began to creep.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then suddenly, as startled out of sleep", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By some old dream-remembered night alarm,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He strove to shout, half rose upon an arm", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And glared about him in the lamp-lit place.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The flare across the ashes of his face", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Went out. He spoke; and, leaning where he lay,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men strained to gather what he strove to say,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So hard the panting labor of his words.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“I had my village and my pony herds", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On Powder where the land was all my own.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I only wanted to be let alone.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I did not want to fight. The Gray Fox sent", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His soldiers. We were poorer when they went;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our babies died, for many lodges burned", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And it was cold. We hoped again and turned", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our faces westward. It was just the same", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Out yonder on the Rosebud. Gray Fox came.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dust his soldiers made was high and long.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I fought him and I whipped him. Was it wrong", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To drive him back? That country was my own.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I only wanted to be let alone.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I did not want to see my people die.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They say I murdered Long Hair and they lie.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His soldiers came to kill us and they died.”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He choked and shivered, staring hungry-eyed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As though to make the most of little light.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then like a child that feels the clutching night", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And cries the wilder, deeming it in vain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He raised a voice made lyrical with pain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And terror of a thing about to be.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“I want to see you, Father! Come to me!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I want to see you, Mother!” O’er and o’er", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His cry assailed the darkness at the door;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And from the gloom beyond the hollow square", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of soldiers, quavered voices of despair:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "“We can not come! They will not let us come!”", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But when at length the lyric voice was dumb", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Crazy Horse was nothing but a name,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There was a little withered woman came", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behind a bent old man. Their eyes were dim.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They sat beside the boy and fondled him,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Remembering the little names he knew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before the great dream took him and he grew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To be so mighty. And the woman pressed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A hand that men had feared against her breast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And swayed and sang a little sleepy song.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Out yonder in the village all night long", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There was a sound of mourning in the dark.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And when the morning heard the meadowlark,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The last great Sioux rode silently away.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before the pony-drag on which he lay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An old man tottered. Bowed above the bier,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A little wrinkled woman kept the rear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With not a sound and nothing in her eyes.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Who knows the crumbling summit where he lies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Alone among the badlands? Kiotes prowl", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "About it, and the voices of the owl", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Assume the daylong sorrow of the crows,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "These many grasses and these many snows.", "indent": 0 } ] ] }