Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE OLD WAGON-MARKET, by RUTH GUTHRIE HARDING First Line: When came I first to paterson Last Line: I left them all unsung . . . Alternate Author Name(s): Burton, Richard, Mrs. Subject(s): Markets; Paterson, New Jersey; Supermarkets | ||||||||
When came I first to Paterson, (Full twenty years ago) I hied me to its market-place, With joy and wonder in my face, To gaze upon the show: But, should you go to Paterson, Things are no longer so. Thick rows of tulips kissed my eyes . . . Each little earthen pot Tip-tilted there along the curb Did all my studied calm disturb, (As it would yours, I wot!) O, sit you patient through this tale And hark you what I got: I bought me cider in a jug, I bought me beans and pease; And every time I wandered there (In Main Street, by the busy square) I bought me more than these. I bought the booths of Amsterdam In a tulip-glowing frieze. I bought my way inside a frame, And posed myself for barter; And thought of Jan Steen's ribald grin If he could only take me in A-spending of my quarter . . . (The cider-barrel at my feet Had been for Jan a starter?) I bought a boy from Hals' gay brush, So droll, yet cherub-like . . . I glimpsed behind his mother's skirt The wooden shoes, the solemn shirt Of him "who saved the dyke!" I swear the genial ghost of Hals Knows always where to strike. (That mother had a shadowed face, Too lined with hurts and fears; And though the other women said That look was gone when she lay dead, My memory cheats the years: In Main Street, where the wagons stood, I bought the sense-of-tears.) When came I first to Paterson, (Ah, me, but I was young!) I thought to make some little songs About the beauty that belongs These streets and mills among; But when the quaint Dutch market went, I left them all unsung . . . | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A SUPERMARKET IN TEXAS by MICHAEL BLUMENTHAL THE A & P by MINNIE BRUCE PRATT SELLING SPIEL ON MAXWELL STREET by CARL SANDBURG BLACK IS THE COLOR OF MY TRUE LOVE'S HAIR by REGINALD SHEPHERD TONE PICTURE (MALIPIERO: IMPRESSONI DAL VERO) by JEAN STARR UNTERMEYER A SUPERMARKET IN CALIFORNIA by ALLEN GINSBERG TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. A TRADE by EDWARD CARPENTER MADONNA OF THE MARKETPLACE by ETHEL TONRY CARPENTER A GHETTO CATCH by LELAND DAVIS AT THE OLD LADIES' HOME by RUTH GUTHRIE HARDING |
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