I looked upon our city and her people From one brave hill that leaned above a spire: I saw the churches bidding men look higher Than any gleaming cross or bell-hung steeple. I saw the graveyard near the city's gate; I saw the factories where men's lives are ground Within a mill that, grinding, makes no sound Save only weeping where the low mounds wait. Then screaming whistles pierced the calm apart, While smoke-herds tramped the sky like maddened steers; I saw the people streaming down like tears, Each with a lost hope beating in his heart, And wondered if God marked from His high place Despair grow deeper on our city's face. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FINIS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON SONNET TO THOSE WHO SEE BUT DARKLY by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON BEFORE DAWN; SONNET by AMY LOWELL THE DOLL BELIEVERS by CLARENCE MAJOR THE NIGHT MOTHS by EDWIN MARKHAM |