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Tears Of The fatherland

Andreas Gryphius 1616 (Głogów) – 1664 (Głogów)



So, now we are destroyed; utterly; more than utterly!
The gang of shameless peoples, the maddening music of war,
The sword fat with blood, the thundering of the guns
Have consumed our sweat and toil, exhausted our reserves.
Towers are on fire, churches turned upside down;
The town hall is in ruins, the strong cut down, destroyed.
Young girls are raped; wherever we turn our gaze,
Fire, plague, and death pierce heart and spirit through.
Here, town and ramparts run with ever-fresh streams of blood.
It's three times six years now, since our mighty river's flow
Was blocked almost by corpses, just barely trickling through.
Yet, I pass over in silence something more terrible than death,
More desperate even than plague, fire and famine;
That so many were bereaved of their soul's treasure too.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

41 sec read
174

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCDEFGHIJHKLH
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 790
Words 136
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14

Andreas Gryphius

Andreas Gryphius was a German lyric poet and dramatist. more…

All Andreas Gryphius poems | Andreas Gryphius Books

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    "Tears Of The fatherland" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Web. 23 Mar. 2023. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/2456/tears-of-the-fatherland>.

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