THE HEADSMAN.
Walt Whitman.
1 see the European headsman ; He stand 8 masked, clothed in red, with huge legs and strong-naked arms, .And leans on a ponderous axe. Whom have you slaughtered lately, European headsman ? Whose is that blood upon you, bo wet and sticky? I see tho clear sunsets of the martyrs ; 1 see from the scaffolds the descending ghosts, Ghosts of the dead lord?, uncrowned ladies, impeached ministers, rejected kings. Rivals, traitors, poisoners, disgraced chieftains, and the rest. I see those who in any land nave died for the good cause ; The seed is 6pare, nevertheless the crop shall never run out ; {Mind you, O foreign things. O priests, the crop shall never run out.) 1 see the blood washed entirely away from tho axe ; Both blade and helve are clean ; They spirt ro more the blood of European nobles— they claßp no more the necks of queens. 1 see the headsman withdraw and become useless; lace the scaffold untrodden and mouldy— l see no longer any avo upon it ; J see the mighty and friendly emblem of tho power of my own race— the newest, largest race.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TAN18861127.2.14.1
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Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 180, 27 November 1886, Page 1
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190THE HEADSMAN. Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 180, 27 November 1886, Page 1
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