Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PANORAMA, by WILLIAM ROSE BENET Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Street sights! Street sounds! The wonder of it grows Last Line: And flamed from every star! Subject(s): City & Town Life | ||||||||
Street sights! Street sounds! The wonder of it grows. Here in the midst of Babel I would wait And mark the eddying throes And labors of this maelstrom fed by Fate. Bright color interweaves, -- No sober staidness and no calm design. Here, with the pomp and play of afternoon on autumn leaves, High lights and vivid colors glow and shine. The gray-massed masonry strikes a dull leaden note Above the crawling crowds -- yet, as in dream, Past walls of many a golden cavern-throat Uninterrupted pours the motley stream. And faces call me. Heavy brows, loud tongues, Or pale pastels of sharp despair flash by. Ladder of life, that sinks its lower rungs Deep in the anguish of humanity! Romance with beggary at shoulder-press, Momus and Artemis in step to tunes That flaunt from tawdry arcades of ingress 'Mid roars from life's buffoons! An old sad man, drooped with a weight of thought, Rasps at a violin in plaintive key. There was an age when the nine maids were brought Not low so easily! Buildings, the hopes you hide, the hard-won joys, Your glory of toil, dim now your grimmer guise. Rank upon rank your martyr host deploys To daily sacrifice, But see! As even-change turns gold to gray With sudden hush, here -- even here -- the calm Voice o'er man's tumult of the end of day Thrills like a radiant psalm. Life's mire hides pearls, -- aye, pearls of secret splendor! There a drab, home-bound laborer stands erect Before a fire-shot spire, and worn eyes render Homage the calloused heart can scarce suspect. I heard a work-girl singing to her lover What doubts, what dreams there are; And then -- man's courage streamed the wild skies over, And flamed from every star! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SUMMER IN A SMALL TOWN by TONY HOAGLAND EVERYTHING'S A FAKE by FANNY HOWE ONE NIGHT IN BALTHAZAR by FANNY HOWE YOU CAN?ÇÖT WARM YOUR HANDS IN FRONT OF A BOOK BUT YOU CAN WARM YOUR HOPES THERE by FANNY HOWE PHOTO OF A MAN ON SUNSET DRIVE: 1914, 2008 by RICHARD BLANCO LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW POEM by DENIS JOHNSON THE FALCONER OF GOD by WILLIAM ROSE BENET |
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