Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, COQ D'OR, by JOHN BROOKS WHEELWRIGHT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

COQ D'OR, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The fountain is frozen in the plaza
Last Line: Will be tumbling about us.
Subject(s): Cities; News; Newspapers; War; Urban Life; Journalism; Journalists


THE fountain is frozen in the Plaza,
the little Venus a-top
who has been squeezed out of a tube of toothpaste,
looks very much as though she had no clothes on.
Silly attempt
of some newspaper man to lend
conscious dignity to the city
with his own notoriety as the rate of interest.

"Let us have peace," says Grant,
with the dreadnaughts smoking below him in the Hudson:
"Let there be light," says God,
and skyscrapers rise all about.
"War is Hell," says Sherman,
covered with old snow and sparrow-droppings.
Silly cursing,
for soon his war horse will be trampling
on the borrowed wings and drapery of the gilded angel.
Soon the city will be swathed again in bunting
flopping with flags which look like pieces of awning
with their corners torn out.
This is what the newspapers whisper
as they rustle on the benches,
They want war.
Soon they will be shrieking it in the voice of a million urchins.
What they say, goes.

"Ha-ha-ha! Hee! Hee!"
cries the Coq d'Or a-top the Hecksher building.
Soon this card city of the Vanderbilts
will be tumbling about us.





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