Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WHEN BROADWAY WAS A COUNTRY ROAD, by CHARLES COLEMAN STODDARD



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WHEN BROADWAY WAS A COUNTRY ROAD, by                    
First Line: No rushing cars, nor tramping feet
Last Line: To broadway as a country road.
Subject(s): Broadway, New York City; Country Life; U.s. - History


No rushing cars, nor tramping feet
Disturbed the peaceful summer days
That shone as now upon the street
That knows our busy noisy ways.
And blushing girls and awkward jays
Strolled slowly home, and cattle lowed
As fell the purple twilight haze,
When Broadway was a country road.

No tailored dandies, trim and neat;
No damsels of the latest craze
Of form and fashion; no conceit
To catch the fancy or amaze,
No buildings met the skyward gaze;
Nor myriad lights that nightly glowed
To set the midnight hour ablaze—
When Broadway was a country road.

Then shady lanes with blossoms sweet
Led gently down to quiet bays
Or to the sheltered, hedged retreat
Some falling mansion now betrays.
The stage-coach here no longer pays
Its daily call, nor farmer's goad
Their oxen, as in olden days
When Broadway was a country road.

Little indeed to meet the praise
Of modern times the picture showed.
And yet the fancy fondly strays
To Broadway as a country road.





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