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Home  »  The Little Book of Modern Verse  »  To-Day

Jessie B. Rittenhouse, ed. (1869–1948). The Little Book of Modern Verse. 1917.

Helen Gray Cone

To-Day

VOICE, with what emulous fire thou singest free hearts of old fashion,

English scorners of Spain, sweeping the blue sea-way,

Sing me the daring of life for life, the magnanimous passion

Of man for man in the mean populous streets of To-day!

Hand, with what color and power thou couldst show, in the ring hot-sanded,

Brown Bestiarius holding the lean tawn tiger at bay,

Paint me the wrestle of Toil with the wild-beast Want, bare-handed;

Shadow me forth a soul steadily facing To-day!