Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AT ELLIS ISLAND, by GEORGE LAWRENCE ANDREWS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AT ELLIS ISLAND, by            
First Line: We speak of them as but a crazy bunch
Last Line: Awaiting what were idle to protest.
Subject(s): Ellis Island, New York Harbor; Immigrants; Emigrant; Emigration; Immigration


We speak of them as but a crazy bunch
Of huddled immigrants, and we forget
What dreams have crumbled, how with woe beset
They crouch here, crowded, garrulous, and munch
Their moldy crusts, their promised land denied.
Through dreary years they planned and saved and dreamed
Against the time that long in coming seemed,
That come, will neither home nor friends provide.

They had been told that freedom here is found,
That great goodwill is ever manifest,
The poor not scorned, the helpless never crushed.
Heart-stricken now, confused by word and sound,
They seem like frightened animals ambushed,
Awaiting what were idle to protest.





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