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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A STREET CAR SYMPHONY, by ROY ADDISON HELTON Poet's Biography First Line: Rumble along, over the water Last Line: Back into town on the spruce street car. Subject(s): Trolley Cars | |||
Rumble along, over the water Smooth as glass where the oil spots are; There by that tug's nose, wide meadows of wonder Gold like the blood of a splintered star! Here inside where the straps are swinging Huddles the freight of a Spruce Street car. Poke necked spinster, with fumbling eyes, Flat as a psalm book and ugly and queer; Blonde in bright taffeta, merry as spring, With a pearl in each ear; Young mulatto girl, clean and comely, All ablaze with a new pink gown, -- White folk's fashions, Gold Coast colors; Dim red aisles of the broad red town. Stout bald artist with sandy hair, Grease marked coat and egg on his mouth; Oh what a madness of youth in the air When the wind blows south! "What are you doing back home, old Kate? Pretty lonely, I guess, and grey; Nobody now to meet at the gate At the end of the day; You who mothered and smoothed me down, Buttoned my collars and messed at my tie, -- While the moon rode white on the brow of the wind And the stars ran high." Scurry along here! The great folk are frowning. Frowning? Not they. They are off out of town, And their solemn old homes, in the broad cloth of twilight, Like old empty mothers, look hungrily down. Spoonful of yellow hair Caught up in a wide red bow, And the ruddy face of a child At her noon day glow: "When father and mother died I wasn't so pleased at first, Though I don't know which of the two of them Was really the worst; Ma with her weepy smile Bothering me in my bed, Or Pa with his drunken snort And his aching head. It's good to be all on your own, Though the lady that works me is slow; There always are fellows to kid, when a girl Has a shape and a go; And Johnnie'll be waiting, I'll bet On the corner of Seventh and Race, With a pink in his coat and a shine on his shoes, And a grin on his face. He's a looker, and on to the town; And he knows how I love him all right: Oh what a strange noise the blood makes in my heart When I think of tonight." Young girl student with calm grave eyes: Life's aflame on the lamp lit street. "What will the Lord God make of me When the true man's eyes and my own eyes meet? Amo, amas, -- now the wind comes warm; Over the hills now the daisies roam; Launcelot! Launcelot! When are you coming To carry me home?" Gay girls in messalines flitting the pavements; Loom of tall towers that rise through the dusk; Faint scent of spring where the trees are budding, Then garlic and gas and musk. Drooping pale widow in from the graveyard, Planning to sell the new tenant their coal; Figuring how much she'll get for the ice box, And why God has taken the light from her soul. Clutter of faded old tenement houses Warm with the folk of the Ghetto and Rome, Banked, with sprawled legs, on colonial doorways, Common and dirty, but making it home. Women in wigs with the grey hair beneath them, Wrinkled old grandmas, all shrouded in white, And a million brown children that dance on the pavements And stay up all night. Pious old man in a choker collar Conning a speech for the Ladies' Aid On the dangers of dance, and the open Sabbath, And of calling a spade a spade. Drag along solemnly! Through these dark byways Washington strolled for a breath of the south, And Darthea Penniston ventured, or pretty Peg Shippen with roses of youth on her mouth. Chicken coops, Swiss chard, sparrow grass, spinach; Moon over head and a smoke tossed star; "End of the line! All out, sir, at Dock Street!" Back into town on the Spruce Street car. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A CROWDED TROLLEY CAR by ELINOR WYLIE 54045 by JOAN SALVAT-PAPASSEIT OLD CHRISTMAS MORNING; A KENTUCKY MOUNTAIN BALLAD by ROY ADDISON HELTON SOUTH SONG by ROY ADDISON HELTON THE MOUNTAIN WHIPPOORWILL (A GEORGIA ROMANCE) by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET UNDER THE CEDARCROFT CHESTNUT by SIDNEY LANIER A LETTER ON THE USE OF MACHINE GUNS AT WEDDINGS by KENNETH PATCHEN TONE PICTURE (MALIPIERO: IMPRESSONI DAL VERO) by JEAN STARR UNTERMEYER BEFORE MARCHING, AND AFTER (IN MEMORIAM F.W.G.) by THOMAS HARDY SANDALPHON by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE JEWISH CEMETERY AT NEWPORT by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW |
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