ODE
Old women in blue;
And then the beetle bit.
It was defeat, or near it!
Yet all that feeble time
Brave Brooks and lithe MacLeish
Had sworn to thresh
Our flagging spirit
With literature made Prime!
Cow Creek and bright Bear Wallow,
Nursing the
blague
that dulls
Spirits grown Eliotic,
Now patriotic
Are: we follow
The lrresponsibles!
Young men, Americans!
You go to win the world
With zeal pro-consular
For our whole star–
you partisans
Of Liberty unfurled!
0 animal excellence,
Take pterodactyl flight
Fire-winged into the air
And find your lair
With cunning sense
On some Arabian bight
Or sleep your dreamless sleep
(Reptilian bomber!) by
The Mediterranean
And like a man
Swear you to keep
Faith with imperial eye:
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