Head Against The Walls

Paul Eluard 1895 (Saint-Denis) – 1952 (Charenton-le-Pont)



There were only a few of them
In all the earth
Each one thought he was alone
They sang, they were right
To sing
But they sang the way you sack a city
The way you kill yourself.

Frayed moist night
Shall we endure you
Longer
Shall we not shake
Your cloacal evidence
We shall not wait for a morning
Made to measure
We wanted to see in other people's eyes
Their nights of love exhausted
They dream only of dying
Their lovely flesh forgotten
Bees caught in their honey
They are ignorant of life
And we suffer everywhere
Red roofs dissolve under the tongue
Dog days in the full beds
Come, empty your sacks of fresh blood
There is still a shadow here

A shred of imbecile there
In the wind their masks, their cast-offs
In lead their traps, their chains
And their prudent blind-men's gestures
There is fire under rocks
If you put out the fire
Be careful we have
Despite the night it breeds
More strength than the belly
Of your wives and sisters
And we will reproduce
Without them but by ax strokes
In your prisons

Torrents of stone labors of foam
Where eyes float without rancor
Just eyes without hope
That know you
And that you should have put out
Rather than ignore

With a safety pin quicker than your gibbets
We shall take our booty where we want it to be

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:12 min read
83

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXXABCX ADEXFBEXGBXCXHXXGX HXXIXEXXCIXXX XEXDXX FC
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,217
Words 239
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 7, 18, 13, 6, 2

Paul Eluard

Paul Éluard, born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel, was a French poet who was one of the founders of the surrealist movement. more…

All Paul Eluard poems | Paul Eluard Books

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