Four hundred men align in the midday's haze
Disciplined, steady, marching under death's terr'ble gaze
Behind march twice as many more
Determined, ready, sighted at Springfield's bar-red door
Ahead, one thousand stand entrenched
By their cannon, their powder, their arms content
The great cause of their enemy, to them empty
Their own cause, their coin-purses filled a-plenty
In the rear, great beasts of war
brought low and skittish by cannon's roar
The warmth of shot rips both flesh and cloth
culls the hundreds but sparks their wroth
The stench of death filling senses
Even the bold become more pensive
All can be done to keep fear at bay
to look to the west, hoping for the light of Day
The drum strikes
and somewhere near, a fife plays
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So this is something that came to me while sitting around at work with nothing to do. I have been wanting to write a Shays TL for quite some time now, just have lacked the drive to really get it going. I have no training or practice in poetry, so I don't expect much from this little bit of ditty above, but what I do hope is that what I lack in skill can be made up for by the tiny little bit of talent I hope I have.
At this point I don't know exactly where I'm going to go with this. I have some vague ideas but I love details and there is surprisingly little detail on what, at first glance, seems to be such an important event. We're all taught a little about Shays' revolt in school, yes, but what I've come to realize is that we're only really taught about it as a prologue to the Constitution. I think it was more than that and I'm interested in it on that account.
My sources are scanty because, as mentioned above, there seems to be little to be had. I've got what I could find and afford, otherwise this is really going to come out as a rough, rough, rough draft. Hopefully, in the future, a few more books and some more web research will fill out bare bones.
Hopefully,
hopefully I can get a first, real update out tomorrow. I really want to get this moving, even in its ugly, first draft format. I hope you guys like the hook.