men make their own history
they forget their native tongue
we think about these salient differences
they reveal themselves
cut off the feudal heads
parceled-out land properly used
sober reality bred its own true interpreters
its real military leaders sat behind the office desk
ghosts watched over its cradle
ideals and the art forms the self-deceptions
on the high plane of great historic tragedy
Republicans in yellow gloves
the iron death mask of Napoleon
accelerated power of motion
old chronology old names old edicts
a subject of antiquarian scholarship
a pale lamp fastened to his head
at the exits a confused welter
the social revolution of the nineteenth century
cannot take its poetry from the past
but only from the future
let the dead bury their dead
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