Helen Hoyt. Automobiles on Sunday. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

Automobiles on Sunday

By Helen Hoyt


From “In a Certain City” DOWN the blue road into the sun
The great cars run;
Down the road’s curve
They swerve,
And their glasses shine white	5
In the sudden light
As they turn;
And the brasses of their lamps and rods burn.

With an inner turning,
An inner sound of turning and churning,	10
With a whir and a purr purr,
With a great hum,
They come;
And they shake their shadows at their side,
Their shadows square and wide	15
Slipping over the road,
Now hastening, now slowed,
Hanging to their wheels half askew,
Purple and black on the road’s oiled blue.

Some with the soft swish of a lady’s train	20
Pass quietly, with sleek disdain;
Enameled, glistening and neat,
Moving by on dainty feet;
Every whirling wheel
Steadfast and genteel.	25

Now a broad bulging lounging fellow
Painted bright in black and yellow,
Wobbling under his merry weight;
And now one comes with terrible lumbering gait;
And one rushes by	30
Straight as a bird through the sky
In the sun.

Shining progression,
Ceaseless procession, procession….
Splendor goes striding by,	35
Beauty goes sliding by,
In the sun, in the sun.