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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


OF CITY FLOWERS; ON READING CERTAIN POEMS IN PRAISE OF NEW YORK by SHAEMAS O'SHEEL

First Line: MY CITY! HOW THE YOUNGER POETS MOCK
Last Line: MY GRIEF ALONE, THOU KNOWEST, WILL BE REAL.
Subject(s): NEW YORK CITY; PRAISE; MANHATTAN; NEW YORK, NEW YORK; THE BIG APPLE;

My city! How the younger poets mock
With present praise thine unrevealed soul!
Surely with scorn thou hear'st their raptures roll,
Nor will to their small minds thy mind unlock.
Not with such clamoring casuists can I flock;
Black witch who ere my birth my future stole,
With fury that I care not to control
I hate thee and the children of thy stock!

I hate thee and I cry it to the world!
And in return thy uncouth savage love,
O lewd amorphous mystery, I feel!
For when at last thy loftiest towers are huried
Hell-ward, of all who mourn thy ruins above,
My grief alone, thou knowest, will be real.



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