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A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

A Fence

Carl Sandburg

Now the stone house on the lake front is finished and the
     workmen are beginning the fence.
The palings are made of iron bars with steel points that
     can stab the life out of any man who falls on them.
As a fence, it is a masterpiece, and will shut off the rabble
     and all vagabonds and hungry men and all wandering
     children looking for a place to play.
Passing through the bars and over the steel points will go
     nothing except Death and the Rain and To-morrow.
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Chicago Poems | Henry Holt & Company, 1916
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