| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | Ashurnatsirpal the Third | | By Carl Sandburg |
| | From “Assyrian Tablets”
From the Fourth Millennium, B.C.—(Free translation)
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, | |
| And burned special captives. | 5 |
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| Some of the soldiers—I cut off hands and feet. | |
| Others—I cut off nose, ears, fingers. | |
| Some—I put out the eyes. | |
| I made a pyramid of heads. | |
| I strung heads on trees circling the town. | 10 |
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| When I got through with it | |
| There wasn’t much left of the town of Tela. | | | | |
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