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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SONNETS FOR NEW YORK CITY: 4. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: This day into the fields my steps are led
Last Line: But to plunge in the fountain of its living blood.
Subject(s): New York City; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple


THIS day into the fields my steps are led.
I cannot heal me there! Row after row,
Thousands of daisies radiantly blow.
They have not brought from Heaven my daily bread!
But they are like a prayer too often said.
I have forgot their meaning, and I go
From the cold rubric of their gold and snow,
And the calm ritual, all uncomforted.
I want the faces! faces! remote and pale,
That surge along the city streets! The flood
Of reckless ones, haggard and spent and frail,
Excited, hungry! In this other mood
'T is not the words of the faith for which I ail,
But to plunge in the fountain of its living blood.






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