Email Poem

Your IP Address: 18.216.21.235

Your Email Address:

To Email Address:

Subject

Personal Note:

Poem Title:

Poem

Of the first five Presidents of the USA, 
four were Virginians. What does that say? 
It says that the South, superb, serene, 
bestrode the land, a virgin queen. 
When the gauge of a nation's financial health 
was tobacco and cotton, America's wealth 
was centred on those vast plantations, 
the envy of all other nations. 
But - threat or opportunity - we find 
that change is never far behind 
our moments of repose or pleasure. 
The South had, in unstinted measure, 
a climate made for agriculture - 
but Fate is a voracious vulture, 
breeds the beef, then picks the carcass clean. 
In Massachusetts, new machines 
were making clothing cheaper, faster. 
King Cotton make way for new masters? 
Unthinkable? Well, think again! 
The North had lots of one thing (rain) 
which meant fast rivers. Water's free, 
and drives the new machinery, 
like Slater's Mill. And what is more, 
the North has coal, and iron ore! 
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maine - 
the South looks with genteel disdain 
on dour gray states with ugly mines 
and foundries, north of Mason's line, 
but once that giant finds his feet, 
the South is dead, defeated, beat; 
gone with the wind that blew through Tara. 
No more tomorrows, Miss O'Hara. 
It's not for slavery or even states' rights 
that thirteen States resolved to fight. 
The South waged war, not to preserve 
Its unique vigor, valor, verve, 
or its "peculiar institutions": 
it fought the Industrial Revolution.

CAPTCHA Preview

Type the characters you see in the picture

Required