Best Twentieth Century Poems

Continuation of Brodsky’s History of the Twentieth Century 

1918.  A flu pandemic in Spain takes hold, 
From Kansas over the seas in America bold, 
Women’s suffrage win the vote, 
Their opinion is not remote, 
Russia switches from the Julian calendar, 
To the Gregorian, the...

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Mr Wiz, Munchkin Land
Be so kind to lend a hand...

Cartwheeling cottage? how daft is that
Landed quite safely, all level and flat
Some midget fellow said, who else heard that
I think ‘Wicked Westie’ might just have gone splat

Tin men and lions and blokes full of straw
Red shoes...

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Twentieth Century

Mankind started this century with so much enthusiasm. 
What has happened to it all now? 
Has something gone wrong with mankind? 
Is he alarmed to live his life to the fullest? 
Why does he have the means to wipe himself out 
with bombs, viruses...

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It can be seen all around us 
Hard times and its sounds
Companies closing down
Gas and fuel go up and staying unsettled 
Then they fall to their lowest in years
Melancholy awareness and tears 
War in other lands 
Religion and stained hands  
 Media melodrama
Families going...

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requiem for the immaterial man
his pauper pockets clean but empty
he stitches his threadbare life with a careful hand
this is the latter half of the twentieth century man
and his well spoken mind sees the writing on the wall
knows the disease of market minded wall street dreamers
and...

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I've never been to Heaven
      nor have I been to Hell

   But living through the 20th century
      I think I know it well...

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The twentieth century 
fades into memory 
  The wars, the holocausts, the roaring twenties, 
the Depression, and the 60's are becoming 
the stuff of legend 
The years continue to roll on 
     Bolshevism in retreat now 
Will there be a...

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