| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917. |
| |
| 108. Portrait of an Old Woman |
| | | By Arthur Davison Ficke |
| |
| |
| SHE limps with halting painful pace, | |
| Stops, wavers, and creeps on again; | |
| Peers up with dim and questioning face | |
| Void of desire or doubt or pain. | |
| |
| Her cheeks hang gray in waxen folds | 5 |
| Wherein there stirs no blood at all. | |
| A hand like bundled cornstalks holds | |
| The tatters of a faded shawl. | |
| |
| Where was a breast, sunk bones she clasps; | |
| A knot jerks where were woman-hips; | 10 |
| A ropy throat sends writhing gasps | |
| Up to the tight line of her lips. | |
| |
| Here strong the city’s pomp is poured … | |
| She stands, unhuman, bleak, aghast: | |
| An empty temple of the Lord | 15 |
| From which the jocund Lord has passed. | |
| |
| He has builded him another house, | |
| Whenceforth his flame, renewed and bright, | |
| Shines stark upon these weathered brows | |
| Abandoned to the final night. | 20 |
| |
|
|
|
