| Hamilton Fish Armstrong, ed. The Book of New York Verse. 1917. | | | | The Empire City | | By George Sylvester Viereck |
| | | HUGE steel-ribbed monsters rise into the air | |
| Her Babylonian towers, while on high | |
| Like gilt-scaled serpents glide the swift trains by, | |
| Or, underfoot, creep to their secret lair. | |
| A thousand lights are jewels in her hair, | 5 |
| The sea her girdle, and her crown the sky, | |
| Her life-blood throbs, the fevered pulses fly, | |
| Immense, defiant, breathless she stands there | |
| |
| And ever listens in the ceaseless din, | |
| Waiting for him, her lover who shall come, | 10 |
| Whose singing lips shall boldly claim their own | |
| And render sonant what in her was dumb: | |
| The splendour and the madness and the sin, | |
| Her dreams in iron and her thoughts of stone. | | | | |
|
|
