Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FACES, by MIRIAM DEL BANCO First Line: In the life of a crowded city Last Line: In the life of the crowded street. Subject(s): Faces; Humanity; Life | ||||||||
In the life of a crowded city, Midst the din of the busy street, You can study humanity's phases, In the different faces you meet; There are some whose every feature Will mirror a placid stream; And we know that to them, life e'er will be An empty, idle dream. Then again a face will meet you As smiling as summer's day; But a moment of thought will discover It has but put away, Beneath a careless action, A weary weight of woe; And only a few and God above The pain of a bruised heart know. And sometimes before your vision, Will flit a kind, dear face, Where, in each speaking feature, Your eager eyes may trace A soul, before whose beauty The world's best hearts will bow; And the kiss of an angelthe seal of God Is pressed on the fair, calm brow. Some faces portray but gladness; Some heartache and pain and woe; While some seem silently fading from earth And breaking their hearts as they go Some bear the impress of shame and vice; Some are as a gleam of Heaven; Some hard are and cruel and sternly cold, And others like sweet balm given. Ah, thus does the world's kaleidoscope Shift round and around forever, And every face has its history; Variety wanting is never; It needs not the wisdom of sage or saint To read all the faces we meet, As we hurry along through the din and the dust, In the life of the crowded street. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PRIVILEGE OF BEING by ROBERT HASS SEAWATER STIFFENS CLOTH by JANE HIRSHFIELD SAYING YES TO LIVING by DAVID IGNATOW THE WORLD IS SO DIFFICULT TO GIVE UP by DAVID IGNATOW A DREAM OF LIFE by MIRIAM DEL BANCO A FLOW'RET IN THE GARLAND; FOR OUT GREAT CENTENARIAN by MIRIAM DEL BANCO |
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