The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ghetto and Other Poems, by Lola Ridge

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Ghetto and Other Poems

Author: Lola Ridge

Posting Date: July 25, 2009 [EBook #4332]
Release Date: August, 2003
First Posted: January 8, 2002

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GHETTO AND OTHER POEMS ***

Produced by Catherine Daly

The Ghetto

Lola Ridge

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

Will you feast with me, American People?
But what have I that shall seem good to you!

On my board are bitter apples
And honey served on thorns,
And in my flagons fluid iron,
Hot from the crucibles.

How should such fare entice you!

CONTENTS

The Ghetto
Manhattan
Broadway
Flotsam
Spring
Bowery Afternoon
Promenade
The Fog
Faces
Debris
Dedication
The Song of Iron
Frank Little at Calvary
Spires
The Legion of Iron
Fuel
A Toast
"The Everlasting Return,"
Palestine
The Song
To the Others
Babel
The Fiddler
Dawn Wind
North Wind
The Destroyer
Lullaby
The Foundling
The Woman with Jewels
Submerged
Art and Life
Brooklyn Bridge
Dreams
The Fire
A Memory
The Edge
The Garden
Under-Song
A Worn Rose
Iron Wine
Dispossessed
The Star
The Tidings

The larger part of the poem entitled "The Ghetto" appeared originally in
THE NEW REPUBLIC and some of poems were printed in THE INTERNATIONAL,
OTHERS, POETRY, etc. To the editors who first published the poems the
author makes due acknowledgment.

THE GHETTO

I

Cool, inaccessible air
Is floating in velvety blackness shot with steel-blue lights,
But no breath stirs the heat
Leaning its ponderous bulk upon the Ghetto
And most on Hester street...

The heat...
Nosing in the body's overflow,
Like a beast pressing its great steaming belly close,
Covering all avenues of air...

The heat in Hester street,
Heaped like a dray
With the garbage of the world.

Bodies dangle from the fire escapes
Or sprawl over the stoops...
Upturned faces glimmer pallidly--
Herring-yellow faces, spotted as with a