Elements of Literature Course 5

5

10

While this America settles in the mold of its vulgarity, heavily
thickening to empire,
And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs
out, and the mass hardens,

I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit,
the fruit rots to make earth.
Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances,
ripeness and decadence; and home to the mother.

You making haste, haste on decay: not blameworthy; life is
good, be it stubbornly long or suddenly
A mortal splendor: meteors are not needed less than
mountains: shine, perishing republic.

But for my children, I would have them keep their distance
from the thickening center; corruption
Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the
monster’s feet there are left the mountains.

And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a
clever servant, insufferable master.
There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught—
they say—God, when he walked on earth.

1. What thoughts or feelings did you have about the speaker’s advice in the last stanza? In what ways is this advice quite the opposite of “love thy neighbor”?
2. The first stanza contains an implied metaphor. What is America compared to? What does “vulgarity” mean here, and why does the republic thicken to empire?
3. What attitude toward America does the second stanza express?
4. What is the speaker’s attitude in the last stanza? Do you think he really means what he says in line 9?
5. What does the speaker seem to think is the cause of the republic’s condition?
6. Review the Quickwrite you wrote before reading the poem. Did the poem make you rethink any of your responses? Explain.
7. If it were possible, would you like to take the speaker aside and instill a little optimism in him or her? What would you tell the speaker?