| Hamilton Fish Armstrong, ed. The Book of New York Verse. 1917. | | | | Manhattan | | By Charles Hanson Towne |
| | | WHEN, sick of all the sorrow and distress | |
| That flourished in the City like foul weeds, | |
| I sought blue rivers and green, opulent meads, | |
| And leagues of unregarded loneliness | |
| Whereon no foot of man had seemed to press, | 5 |
| I did not know how great had been my needs, | |
| How wise the woodland’s gospels and her creeds, | |
| How good her faith to one long comfortless. | |
| |
| But in the silence came a Voice to me; | |
| In every wind it murmured, and I knew | 10 |
| It would not cease, though far my heart might roam. | |
| It called me in the sunrise and the dew, | |
| At noon and twilight, sadly, hungrily, | |
| The jealous City, whispering always—“Home!” | | | | |
|
|
