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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TWO SONNETS FROM NEW YORK: QUESTIONS by ADELAIDE NICHOLS BAKER

First Line: WHERE IN THE CROWDS THAT BLUNDER THROUGH THE STREET
Last Line: MAKE EVEN BLIND MEN SERVE HER HIGH DESIRE?
Subject(s): NEW YORK CITY; MANHATTAN; NEW YORK, NEW YORK; THE BIG APPLE;
Where in the crowds that blunder through the street
From dawn to dark with faces tensely blind,
Are men so wonderfully swift of mind
That they could dream this city, -- all complete
In brave, unfinished beauty that upsprings
Into a hundred towers, cleaving light
From purple shadow and against the night
Thrusting long shafts that shine like spears of kings?

These that push past me dully, scarcely seem
To see its keen-edged beauty. Can there, then,
Burrow among the mass the very men
Who shaped the glory of this splendid dream?
Or does great Beauty, moved to strange satire,
Make even blind men serve her high desire?



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