Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Conquest

 “Greater in battle than the man who would conquer a thousand-thousand men, is he who would conquer just one — himself."

― Gautama Buddha

“ 'When you have seen the errors in which you live, you will understand 
the good that we have done you by coming to your land 
by order of his Majesty the King of Spain.' ” 
― Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel

“There's no such thing as a limited victory. Every victory leaves another resentment, another defeated and humiliated people. 
Another place to guard and defend and fear.” 
― Jeanette Winterson, The Passion

Augustus of Prima Porta, 1st century

Midweek Motif ~ Conquest

As we leave August behind, we leave a month named in honor of the Roman Emperor Augustus because it was the time of year in which he conquered Egypt, et al. 

Conquest.

According to Wikipedia:

The right of conquest is the right of a conqueror to territory taken by force of arms. It was traditionally a principle of international law that has gradually given way in modern times until its proscription after World War II when the crime of war of aggression was first codified in the Nuremberg Principles and then finally, in 1974, as a United Nations resolution 3314.

Brief Cloud Biography

Your Challenge: Write a new narrative poem on a glorious, inglorious, or mixed conquest.

microwave

Related Poem Content Details

BY ANGÉLICA FREITAS

TRANSLATED BY TIFFANY HIGGINS

how to explain brazil to an extraterrestrial:

your face on a flag. they’d recognize

you as leader

and knock you off. dirty 

part of the conquest.

but it already happened, in another shape: aerial

view of the amazon,

a hundred-odd

hydroelectric plants

to fry your eggs in the microwave.

and they’d finish you off: just 

part of the conquest.

and what if they came

to tour the waterfalls?

or to be taught by the elite

how to make a democracy?

the spaceships cover the sky

completely.

. . . . 

Read the rest HERE.)

Toussaint L’Ouverture

Related Poem Content Details

BY HENRIETTA CORDELIA RAY

To those fair isles where crimson sunsets burn, 

We send a backward glance to gaze on thee, 

Brave Toussaint! thou was surely born to be 

A hero; thy proud spirit could but spurn 

Each outrage on the race. Couldst thou unlearn 

The lessons taught by instinct? Nay! and we 

Who share the zeal that would make all men free, 

Must e’en with pride unto thy life-work turn. 

Soul-dignity was thine and purest aim; 

And ah! how sad that thou wast left to mourn 

In chains ’neath alien skies. On him, shame! shame! 

That mighty conqueror who dared to claim 

The right to bind thee. Him we heap with scorn, 

And noble patriot! guard with love thy name.

Concord Hymn

Related Poem Content Details

BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument, July 4, 1837

By the rude bridge that arched the flood, 

   Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, 

Here once the embattled farmers stood 

   And fired the shot heard round the world. 

The foe long since in silence slept; 

   Alike the conqueror silent sleeps; 

And Time the ruined bridge has swept 

   Down the dark stream which seaward creeps. 

On this green bank, by this soft stream, 

   We set today a votive stone; 

That memory may their deed redeem, 

   When, like our sires, our sons are gone. 

Spirit, that made those heroes dare 

   To die, and leave their children free, 

Bid Time and Nature gently spare 

   The shaft we raise to them and thee.

Advertisement for video game.

Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community.

(Next week Susan's Midweek Motif will be ~ Blooms (noun) )