Louise Morgan Sill. Maiden Lane. Hamilton Fish Armstrong, ed. 1917. The Book of New York Verse

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

Maiden Lane

By Louise Morgan Sill


DOWN Maiden Lane, where clover grew,
Sweet-scented in the early air,
Where sparkling rills went shining through
Their grassy banks, so green, so fair,
Blithe little maids from Holland land	5
Went tripping, laughing each to each,
To bathe the flax, or spread a band
Of linen in the sun to bleach.

More than two centuries ago
They wore this path—a maiden’s lane—	10
Where now such waves of commerce flow
As never dazed a burgher’s brain.
Two hundred years ago and more
Those thrifty damsels, one by one,
With plump, round arms their linen bore	15
To dry in Mana-ha-ta’s sun.

But now! Behold the altered view;
No tender sward, no bubbling stream,
No laughter,—was it really true,
Or but the fancy of a dream?	20
Were these harsh walls a byway sweet,
This floor of stone a grassy plain?
Pray vanish, modern city street,
And let us stroll down Maiden Lane.