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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONGS OF NEW YORK: THE PARKS by CHARLES HANSON TOWNE

First Line: THERE ARE GREEN ISLANDS IN THE CITY SEA
Last Line: THERE ARE GREEN ISLANDS IN THE CITY SEA.
Subject(s): NEW YORK CITY; PARKS; MANHATTAN; NEW YORK, NEW YORK; THE BIG APPLE;

THERE are green islands in the city sea,
Where all day long, the endless, passionate waves
Beat, yet destroy not; and their quiet saves
How many a heart grown sick with memory!

Not derelicts alone are foundered there,
But children with the laughter of the May --
Bright, living flowers -- in these glad gardens play,
Knowing, yet knowing not, the town's despair!

God made the ocean, where tumultuously
The loud storms burst; and Babylon He made;
Yet all the hills are His, dim valley and glade --
There are green islands in the city sea.



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