Page:Anthology of Magazine Verse (1921).djvu/75
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Let thy kindness be as a wide white blanket covering allThe brave inglorious futile race of menWho lift tired eyes ever to sad starsMore desolateThan the wind-harrowed wastes of ocean,Whence comes no answer.And after our futile striving, give usPeace.Clifford Franklin GesslerPoetry, A Magazine of Verse
NEVERTHELESS
Inasmuch as I love youAnd shall know no peace more unless I am near you,Though you are a flame of willProud and variable as you are beautiful and dear—Nevertheless I will go your way,Since you will not go mine.
Therefore, although the cool roads of my villageAre more pleasant to me than the pavements of your city;Although its dim streets are more kindly than your glaring arcs;Though the unhurried voices of my townspeopleAre more friendly music in my ears than the screamingsAnd glib chatter of your city-dwellers:Nevertheless I will go down with you into the cityAnd bruise my heart upon its bricks;Become brother to its shrieking "elevated"And learn to hurry away my days in this brief worldAmong the grimy roofs that soil the clean young sunshine;
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