| Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Smoke and Steel. 1922. |
| |
| IV. Playthings of the Wind |
| 16. Bronzes |
| |
| THEY ask me to handle bronzes | |
| Kept by children in China | |
| Three thousand years | |
| Since their fathers | |
| Took fire and molds and hammers | 5 |
| And made these. | |
| |
| The Ming, the Chou, | |
| And other dynasties, | |
| Out, gone, reckoned in ciphers, | |
| Dynasties dressed up | 10 |
| In old gold and old yellow— | |
| They saw these. | |
| |
| Let the wheels | |
| Of three thousand years | |
| Turn, turn, turn on. | 15 |
| |
| Let one poet then | |
| (One will be enough) | |
| Handle these bronzes | |
| And mention the dynasties | |
| And pass them along. | 20 |
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