Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CENTRE STREET, by WILSON PUGSLEY MACDONALD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CENTRE STREET, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Centre street is very drab
Last Line: On the cobbles of centre street.


CENTRE STREET is very drab,
Drab of look and drab of talk:
There the maidens look like chalk,
There old women leer and gab,
There each doorway shows inside
Breeding-grounds of fratricide.
When I pass the fumes pour
From each window, from each door --
Sullen fumes, musty fumes,
As from sudden-opened tombs.
"Nothing," cried I, "pure and sweet
Ever came from Centre Street."

There's a doorway, to disgrace
All the others in this place,
Here the foulest woman's skirt
Lifts in instinct from the dirt.
This door would I hurry past
To escape its evil blast;
But instead of smells astounding --
Sullen fumes and choking gases --
Came the loveliest of lasses
From the doorway bounding.
Nothing cleaner or more fair
Ever burst on summer air:
White shoes and white socks,
Pink cheeks and pink knees,
And pink sash to match these,
And the daintiest of frocks.

The sun was shining, it was noon:
The pretty maiden passed me by
Like a lovely butterfly
From a drab cocoon;
Or like a gull which, at one stroke,
Swings from a ship's smoke,
With no hint of gray or black
On its clean and glowing back;
Or like lilies white that come
From the marsh's bronze scum.
Swiftly did she go, and sweet
Was the music of her feet
On the cobbles of Centre Street.





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