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Poet's Choice

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But O! the state,

The dark suspense in which poor vassals stand

Each mind upon the spire of chance hangs fluctuant;

The day of separation is at hand;

Imagination lifts her gloomy curtains,

Like ev'ning's mantle at the flight of day,

Thro' which the trembling pinnacle we spy,

On which we soon must stand with hopeful smiles,

Or apprehending frowns; to tumble on

The right or left forever.

In such lines, and in Poets of the Civil War , imagination lifts its immeasurably somber curtain on the great national division. McClatchy's anthology is significant as more evidence in the great, continuing project of the Americans to become one people.

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