| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | The Black Hawk War of the Artists | | By Vachel Lindsay |
| | | Written for Lorado Taft’s statue of Black Hawk at Oregon, Illinois. |
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HAWK of the Rocks, | |
| Yours is our cause today. | |
| Watching your foes | |
| Here in our war array, | |
| Young men we stand, | 5 |
| Wolves of the West at bay. | |
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| Power, power for war | |
| Comes from these trees divine; | |
| Power from the boughs, | |
| Boughs where the dew-beads shine, | 10 |
| Power from the cones— | |
| Yea, from the breath of the pine! | |
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| Power to restore | |
| All that the white hand mars. | |
| See the dead east | 15 |
| Crushed with the iron cars— | |
| Chimneys black | |
| Blinding the sun and stars! | |
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| Hawk of the pines, | |
| Hawk of the plain-winds fleet, | 20 |
| You shall be king | |
| There in the iron street, | |
| Factory and forge | |
| Trodden beneath your feet. | |
| |
| There will proud trees | 25 |
| Grow as they grow by streams. | |
| There will proud thoughts | |
| Walk as in warrior dreams. | |
| There will proud deeds | |
| Bloom as when battle gleams! | 30 |
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| Warriors of Art, | |
| We will hold council there, | |
| Hewing in stone | |
| Things to the trapper fair, | |
| Painting the gray | 35 |
| Veils that the spring moons wear. | |
| |
| This our revenge, | |
| This one tremendous change: | |
| Making new towns, | |
| Lit with a star-fire strange, | 40 |
| Wild as the dawn | |
| Gilding the bison-range. | |
| |
| All the young men | |
| Chanting your cause that day, | |
| Red-men, new-made | 45 |
| Out of the Saxon clay, | |
| Strong and redeemed, | |
| Bold in your war-array. | |
| |
| Power, power for war | |
| Comes from these trees divine; | 50 |
| Power from the boughs | |
| Boughs where the dew-beads shine; | |
| Power from the cones, | |
| Yea, from the breath of the pine! | | | |
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