from Lyrics of the Street

By Julia Ward Howe

Street Yarn

Roses caged in windows, heighten

Your faint blooms today;

Silks and sheeny satins, brighten;

He has passed this way!

Could ye keep his fleeting presence

Gone beyond recall,

But a little of his essence,

I would have you all.

Arabesque so quaint and shady,

That mightst catch his eye

To adorn a stately lady

Ere her hour went by,

Canst assure me that his glancing

Rested on they fold?

Did that set your purples dancing?

Wake the sleepy gold?

Ye neglected apple-venders

Mouldering in the street,

Did he curse between your tenders,

Spurning with his feet?

Then must I an alms deliver

For his graceless pride;

Could I buy his sins forever,

I’d not be denied.

Paying patiently his ransom

Never conscience-pricked;

Cheating Justice of her handsome

Heartless derelict.

Did he view thee, ancient steeple,

With thy weird clock-face,

Frowning down on sinful people

Passing out of grace?

Nay, respond not to my question

With thy prate of time:

Things to which my soul must hasten

Lie beyond thy chime.

With no circumstance to screen us,

We must meet again:

I shall bid God judge between us,

Answering Amen.

Source: She Wields a Pen: American Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century (University of Iowa Press, 1997)