Kinsey Keene

Edgar Lee Masters Your attention, Thomas Rhodes, president of the bank;  Coolbaugh Whedon, editor of the Argus;  Rev. Peet, pastor of the leading church;  A. D. Blood, several times Mayor of Spoon River;  And finally all of you, members of the Social Purity Club - Your attention to Cambronne’s dying words,  Standing with the heroic remnant  Of Napoleon’s guard on Mount Saint Jean  At the battle field of Waterloo,  When Maitland, the Englishman, called to them:  “Surrender, brave Frenchmen!”—  There at close of day with the battle hopelessly lost,  And hordes of men no longer the army  Of the great Napoleon  Streamed from the field like ragged strips Of thunder clouds in the storm.  Well, what Cambronne said to Maitland  Ere the English fire made smooth the brow of the hill  Against the sinking light of day  Say I to you, and all of you, And to you, O world.  And I charge you to carve it  Upon my stone.