Page:Anthology of Magazine Verse (1921).djvu/22

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RAIN
I never knew how words were vain Until I strove to sayThe thoughts that fell like the grey rain Upon my heart today.
The April rain falls on the earth, That waits a while for words,And then becomes articulate In buds and bees and birds.
The thoughts that rain upon my heart Bring nothing fair to birth;Oh God, I kneel before the art, Of this great lyrist, earth.
Contemporary VerseKenneth Slade Alling


ON THE PASSING OF THE LAST FIRE HORSE FROM MANHATTAN ISLAND
I remember the cleared streets, the strange suspense As if a thunder-storm were under way;Magnificently furious, hurrying thence, The fire-eyed horses racing to the fray;Out of old Homer where the heroes are, Beating upon the whirlwind thunderous hoofs,Wild horses and plumed Ajax in his car: Ob, in those days we still possest the proofsMen battled shouting by the gates of Troy, With shields of triple brass and spears of flame.With what distended nostrils, what fierce joy, What ring on stone and steel, those horses came.Like horses of gods that whirl to the dawn's burning, They came, and they are gone, and unreturning.
The New York Evening PostKenneth Slade Alling

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