Lines for Happy Jack

These lines came to mind when I saw the iconic picture of Jack Hughes, bloody and jubilant:

“O strong-winged soul with prophetic

Lips red with the bloodbeat of song!

With tremor of heartstrings magnetic

With thoughts as thunders in throng,

With consonant ardors of chords

That pierce men’s hearts as with swords,

And hale them hearing along.”

—Algernon Charles Swineburne, from “To Walt Whitman in America”:

The beauty of Israel, the power of the New World.

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