In A Modern City

Dreary fog and drizzling sleet, And a lamp-lit track of slime; Phantoms dim in the misty street, Vanishing, streaked with grime; Overhead in a spurious night, Formed by the vapors dun, Wraith-like globes of haloed light, Mocking the hidden sun;--

Children, shod in sodden shoes, (That is a sight that hurts;) Women, furrowing filthy ooze In thin, bedraggled skirts; Horses, lashed with cruel zest, Ploughing the fumid fog; Hark! ... a car, with no arrest, Killing a howling dog;--

Clanging trams, with haggard men Forcing their way within,-- Some compressed in a steaming-pen, Others soaked to the skin; Smoke and soot in the murky sky, Death in the tainted air, Each aware, were he to die, None in the crowd would care;--

Here and there a carriage fine, Cleaving the reeking mass; Scowling faces, ranged in line, Watching the rich man pass; Envy's gleam in many an eye, Hate in many a threat; Why should he be warm and dry, And they be cold and wet?

Pictures these of the "Passing Show," Scenes in a world gone wrong, Wretched weaklings, born to woe, Crushed by the brutal strong! Breaking hearts that crave release, Slaves to a ceaseless strife! ... I will go back to sylvan peace And a sight of the Source of Life.