| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | Charwomen | | By Philip Becker Goetz |
| | | THEY might be the grim Parcae of old Greece, | |
| The three worn women whom I oft behold | |
| Pass my warm window in the biting cold | |
| Across the square decent with falling fleece. | |
| Sometimes, as now, when the arc-lights increase, | 5 |
| The wrinkled faces suddenly unfold | |
| A revelation those taut lips withold | |
| From utterance. O Time, wilt thou ne’er cease | |
| To chisel thus thy bitter, cruel sway | |
| Upon the yielding masks of these thy slaves? | 10 |
| How better far they never saw the sun, | |
| But in Pentelic womb all dreaming lay, | |
| Safe from thy wasteful, groping hand that graves | |
| A million souls to shape one Parthenon! | | | | |
|
|
