Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE LITTLE FRUIT-SHOP by FLORENCE WILKINSON EVANS

First Line: THE LITTLE BROADWAY FRUIT-SHOP BURSTS AND GLOWS
Last Line: LO, A SWART FAUN-GOD MID HIS VOTIVE FRUIT.
Subject(s): BROADWAY, NEW YORK CITY; FRUIT; RETAIL TRADE; STORES; SHOPS; SHOPKEEPERS;

The little Broadway fruit-shop bursts and glows
Like a stained-glass window rioting through the gloom
Of a grim façade; a garden over seas;
A Syracusan idyl; a lilt that flows
In chords of dusk-red colour; emerald bloom
Loved by the nightingale, voice of the voiceless trees;
Ripe orchards mellow with innumerable bees.

A dark Greek boy counts up with supple hands
Lucent rotundities, the Bacchic grape
In luscious pyramids, pears like a lute
Most musically carved, nuts from sweet lands
Demeter lost; oh, many a sculptured shape;—
Had he his panther-skin, the thyrsus and the flute,—
Lo, a swart faun-god mid his votive fruit.



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