George Sylvester Viereck. On Broadway. Hamilton Fish Armstrong, ed. 1917. The Book of New York Verse

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

On Broadway

By George Sylvester Viereck


GREAT jewels glitter like a wizard’s rain
Of pearl and ruby in the women’s hair.
And all the men—each drags a golden chain,
As though he walked in freedom. In the glare,
Luxurious-cushioned, wheels a revel-train	5
Where kings of song with weary feet have trod,
Where Poe, sad priest to Beauty and to Pain,
Bore through the night the Vision and the God.

And yet, perhaps, in this assemblage vast,
In some poor heart sounds the enraptured chord,	10
And staggering homeward from a hopeless quest
The God-annointed touched me, meanly dressed
And, like a second Peter, I have passed
Without salute the vessel of the Lord.