Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HOW BIG?, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HOW BIG?, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The cities now are waiting
Last Line: Oyster bay.
Subject(s): Census


The cities now are waiting,
The villages as well,
To see what tale the census
Has to tell.

Chicago wants two million,
And Podunk wants ten score,
And each, whate'er the fact is,
Will want more.

And yet for all the counting
Of statisticians wise,
Our cities are not rated
By their size.

There's Beverly, a hamlet
Right delicate in girth,
But where's a bigger city
On the earth?

And Lincoln, in Nebraska,
A modest little town,
To New York or Chicago
Won't back down.

And after all the cities
Have had their say,
We hear and heed the word from
Oyster Bay.





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