Richard Watson Gilder. The City. Hamilton Fish Armstrong, ed. 1917. The Book of New York Verse

Hamilton Fish Armstrong, ed. The Book of New York Verse. 1917.

The City

By Richard Watson Gilder


OH, dear is the song of the pine
When the wind of the night-time blows,
And dear is the murmuring river
That afar through my childhood flows;
And soft is the raindrops’ beat	5
And the fountain’s lyric play,
But to me no music is half so sweet
As the thunder of Broadway!

Stream of the living world
Where dash the billows of strife!—	10
One plunge in the mighty torrent
Is a year of tamer life!
City of glorious days,
Of hope, and labour, and mirth,
With room, and to spare, on thy splendid bays	15
For the ships of all the earth!