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The Poetry of Berton Braley

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2012 2:34 am
by Mr A
I'd like to introduce those that have not read any poems by Berton Braley to some of his poetry. He has been described in this way:
Berton Braley (1882 -1966) was an America poet who expressed the benevolent American sense of life through rhyme and verse. His poems romanticize the heroic, great, and industrious in man.
Let me post a few:

Back of the beating hammer
By which the steel is wrought,
Back of the workshop's clamor
The seeker may find the Thought,
The Thought that is ever master
Of iron and steam and steel,
That rises above disaster
And tramples it under heel!

The drudge may fret and tinker
Or labor with lusty blows,
But back of him stands the Thinker,
The clear-eyed man who knows;
For into each plow or saber,
Each piece and part and whole,
Must go the Brains of Labor,
Which gives the work a soul!

Back of the motors humming
Back of the belts that sing,
Back of the hammers drumming.
Back of the cranes that swing,
There is the eye which scans them
Watching through stress and strain
There is the Mind which plans them-
Back of the brawn, the Brain!

- The Thinker by Berton Braley


Oh, we're sich to death of the style of song
That's only a sort of a simpering song,
A kissy song and a sissy song
Or a weepy, creepy, whimpering song.
So give us the lift of a lusty song.
A boisterous, bubbling, boiling song,
Or a smashing song and a dashing song,
Oh, give us the tang of a toiling song.
The chanty loud of the working crowd,
The thunderous thrall of a toiling song!

Ay sing us a joyous, daring song,
Not a moaning, groaning, fretting song,
But a ringing song, and a swinging song,
Arigorous, vigorous, sweating song,
We have had enough of the gypsy song.
Which is only a lazy, shirking song,
So toughen your throat to a rougher note
And give us the tune of a working song,
A tune of strife and the joy of life,
The beat and throb of a working song!

- The Working Song by Berton Braley