The Broken Dike by Edna St. Vincent Millay

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The broken dike, the levee washed away, / The good fields flooded and the cattle drowned, / Estranged and treacherous all the faithful ground, / And nothing left but floating disarray

Of tree and home uprooted,-was this the day

Man dropped upon his shadow without a sound

And died, having laboured well and having found

His burden heavier than a quilt of clay? No, no. I saw him when the sun had set

In water, leaning on his single oar

Above his garden faintly glimmering yet. There bulked the plough, here washed the updrifted weeds. And scull across his roof and make for shore, / With twisted face and pocket full of seeds.

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