---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dave Collins <collindave@hughes.net>
Date: Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Subject: Langston Hughes - Merry Christmas
To: Dave Collins <collindave@hughes.net>
Merry Christmas, China,
From: Dave Collins <collindave@hughes.net>
Date: Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Subject: Langston Hughes - Merry Christmas
To: Dave Collins <collindave@hughes.net>
Merry Christmas
"Merry Christmas": Published in New Masses (Dec. 1930), p. 4.
| From the gun-boats in the river, | |
| Ten-inch shells for Christmas gifts, | |
| And peace on earth forever. |
| Merry Christmas, India, | |
| To Gandhi in his cell, | |
| From righteous Christian England, | |
| Ring out, bright Christmas bell! |
| Ring Merry Christmas, Africa, | |
| From Cairo to the Cape! | |
| Ring Hallehuiah! Praise the Lord! | |
| (For murder and for rape.) |
| Ring Merry Christmas, Haiti! | |
| (And drown the voodoo drums— | |
| We'll rob you to the Christian hymns | |
| Until the next Christ comes.) |
| Ring Merry Christmas, Cuba! | |
| (While Yankee domination | |
| Keeps a nice fat president | |
| In a little half-starved nation.) |
| And to you down-and-outers, | |
| ("Due to economic laws") | |
| Oh, eat, drink, and be merry | |
| With a bread-line Santa Claus— |
| While all the world hails Christmas, | |
| While all the church bells sway! | |
| While, better still, the Christian guns | |
| Proclaim this joyous day! |
| While holy steel that makes us strong | |
| Spits forth a mighty Yuletide song: | |
| SHOOT Merry Christmas everywhere! | |
| Let Merry Christmas GAS the air! |
--
The past is never dead. It's not even past." William Faulkner
Visit my bloghttp://wwwlearn-past.blogspot.com/
2 comments:
I like the anti-Christmas sentiment, but the negative tone is a little bit of a downer for me. What is the way it should be?
I agree that the Xmas poem is negative. It reflects the mood of those who participated in WWI.
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