At Hayes' General Store, west of the cemetery, hangs an old army rifle, used by a discouraged Civil War veteran to end his earthly... troubles. The grocer took the rifle as payment 'on account.'LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The hill farmer ... always seems to make out somehow with his corn patch, his few vegetables, his rifle, and fishing rod. This sel...f-contained economy creates in the hillman a comparative disinterest in the world's affairs, along with a disdain of lowland ways. "I don't go to question the good Lord in his wisdom," runs the phrasing attributed to a typical mountaineer, "but I jest cain't see why He put valleys in between the hills."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
To fair Fidele's grassy tomb Soft maids and village hinds shall bring... Each opening sweet of earliest bloom, And rifle all the breathing spring.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... if there are no waving flags and marching songs at the barricades as Walter marches out with his little battalion, it is not b...ecause the battle lacks nobility. On the contrary, he has picked up in his way, still imperfect and wobbly in his small view of human destiny.... He becomes, in spite of those who are too intrigued with despair and hatred of man to see it, King Oedipus refusing to tear out his eyes, but attacking the oracle instead. He is that last Jewish patriot manning his rifle at Warsaw.... He is Anne Frank, still believing in people; he is the nine small heroes of Little Rock; he is Michelangelo creating David and Beethoven bursting forth with the Ninth Symphony. He is all these things because he has finally reached out in his tiny moment and caught that sweet essence which is human dignity, and it shines like the old star-touched dream that is in his eyes.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Writing or printing is like shooting with a rifle; you may hit your reader's mind, or miss it;Mbut talking is like playing at a ma...rk with the pipe of an engine; if it is within reach, and you have time enough, you can't help hitting it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains, And the women come out to cut up what remains,... Jest roll to your rifle an' blow out your brains An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
There will be a rusty gun on the wall, sweetheart, The rifle grooves curling with flakes of rust.... A spider will make a silver string nest in the darkest, warmest corner of it.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Does he lie there forever, where his rifle waits, giant... and straight? . . . I think you die again and live again, Johnny, each summer that moves inside my mind.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »