Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.
Forty-second StreetEmmy Veronica Sanders
I
Peace is somewhere—
Peace of the big blue spaces …
Fall fiercely through the livid air.
A dull roar rises from the seething places
Where, cold-eyed slaves driven by cold-eyed masters,
Six million hunted beings dwell.
Six million shapes from a machine-made hell
Push past through filth and icy sleet,
Push down and up and ever up and down
The Street.
Peace is somewhere—
Peace of the big blue spaces …
The aged pines, with heads bent low
And folded hands like solemn congregations,
Receive the silent sacrament of snow …
Planets and stars gliding through crystal spaces,
Clear burning in the frozen halls of time….
At this mad pushing of a million feet,
At this wild thronging of the withered faces,
At this foul nightmare of
The Street.
Peace of the wide blue spaces….