| Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Cornhuskers. 1918. |
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| 74. Ashurnatsirpal III |
| | | (From Babylonian tablet, 4,000 years Before Christ) |
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| THREE walls around the town of Tela when I came. | |
| They expected everything of those walls; | |
| Nobody in the town came out to kiss my feet. | |
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| I knocked the walls down, killed three thousand soldiers, | |
| Took away cattle and sheep, took all the loot in sight, | 5 |
| And burned special captives. | |
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| Some of the soldiers—I cut off hands and feet. | |
| Others—I cut off ears and fingers. | |
| Some—I put out the eyes. | |
| I made a pyramid of heads. | 10 |
| I strung heads on trees circling the town. | |
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| When I got through with it | |
| There wasn’t much left of the town of Tela. | |
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