Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WALL STREET, by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON



Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WALL STREET, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Strait river, with its hoarse and feverous flood
Last Line: Christ above mammon, love before the world.
Subject(s): Money; Rivers; Wall Street, New York City


STRAIT river, with its hoarse and feverous flood
Of money-makers; on that turbulent tide
Hourly men sink, or bring their argosies
To unhoped havens. On that tiny stage
The day-dream of the dollar is played out
In tragic throes that shake the land; there gold
Is God, the devotees are hollow-eyed.
A touch brings London; at a mystic word
The tropics tremble; while an unpraised hand
Withers broad grain-fields lovely in the sun
A thousand leagues away.
Meanwhile, the spire
Of Trinity, as set in satire there,
Points with insistent finger to the skies
Placid above this lust of loss-and-gain,
And underneath, the aisles of peace and prayer
Await the worshipers who still would place
Christ above Mammon, love before the world.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...



Home: PoetryExplorer.net