Poem: “The successful man has thrust himself” by Stephen Crane

War is Kind & Other Lines (1905)

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American Literature – American Poetry – Stephen Crane – Poems by Stephen Crane – War is Kind & Other Lines
< < < Once a man clambering to the housetops
In the Night > > >

The successful man has thrust himself

The successful man has thrust himself
Through the water of the years,
Reeking wet with mistakes —
Bloody mistakes;
Slimed with victories over the lesser,
A figure thankful on the shore of money.
Then, with the bones of fools
He buys silken banners
Limned with his triumphant face;
With the skins of wise men
He buys the trivial bows of all.
Flesh painted with marrow
Contributes a coverlet,
A coverlet for his contented slumber.
In guiltless ignorance, in ignorant guilt,
He delivered his secrets to the riven multitude.
“Thus I defended: Thus I wrought.”
Complacent, smiling,
He stands heavily on the dead.
Erect on a pillar of skulls
He declaims his trampling of babes;
Smirking, fat, dripping,
He makes speech in guiltless ignorance,
Innocence.

< < < Once a man clambering to the housetops
In the Night > > >

American Literature – American Poetry – Stephen Crane – Poems by Stephen Crane – War is Kind & Other Lines

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War is Kind & Other Lines (1905)

The successful man has thrust himself

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