Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SONNETS OF SEVEN CITIES: PITTSBURGH, by BERTON BRALEY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SONNETS OF SEVEN CITIES: PITTSBURGH, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A factory girl with smudges on her cheek
Last Line: She cannot wholly free her hands of grime.
Subject(s): Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania


A factory girl with smudges on her cheek
And strong hands hardened with her daily toil
Where furnaces flare forth and caldrons boil
With white hot metal, and the steel shears shriek;
This is no sheltered maiden, soft and meek,
But one who dares the labor and the moil
To change the ore and coal ripped from the soil
Into the tools of progress that men seek.
Yet she has softer hours when, silken clad,
She seeks the lights and laughs the night away,
Wasting her wages like a spendthrift glad,
Avid of pleasure and of love and play;
But though her beauty glows at such a time
She cannot wholly free her hands of grime.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net