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Sara Teasdale - From The Woolworth Tower
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Vivid with love, eager for greater beauty 
Out of the night we come 
Into the corridor, brilliant and warm. 
A metal door slides open, 
And the lift receives us. 
Swiftly, with sharp unswerving flight 
The car shoots upward, 
And the air, swirling and angry, 
Howls like a hundred devils. 
Past the maze of trim bronze doors, 
Steadily we ascend. 
I cling to you 
Conscious of the chasm under us, 
And a terrible whirring deafens my ears.

The flight is ended.

We pass thru a door leading onto the ledge— 
Wind, night and space 
Oh terrible height 
Why have we sought you? 
Oh bitter wind with icy invisible wings 
Why do you beat us? 
Why would you bear us away? 
We look thru the miles of air, 
The cold blue miles between us and the city, 
Over the edge of eternity we look 
On all the lights, 
A thousand times more numerous than the stars; 
Oh lines and loops of light in unwound chains 
That mark for miles and miles 
The vast black mazy cobweb of the streets; 
Near us clusters and splashes of living gold 
That change far off to bluish steel 
Where the fragile lights on the Jersey shore 
Tremble like drops of wind-stirred dew. 
The strident noises of the city 
Floating up to us 
Are hallowed into whispers. 
Ferries cross thru the darkness 
Weaving a golden thread into the night, 
Their whistles weird shadows of sound.

We feel the millions of humanity beneath us,— 
The warm millions, moving under the roofs, 
Consumed by their own desires; 
Preparing food, 
Sobbing alone in a garret, 
With burning eyes bending over a needle, 
Aimlessly reading the evening paper, 
Dancing in the naked light of the café, 
Laying out the dead, 
Bringing a child to birth— 
The sorrow, the torpor, the bitterness, the frail joy 
Come up to us 
Like a cold fog wrapping us round. 
Oh in a hundred years 
Not one of these blood-warm bodies 
But will be worthless as clay. 
The anguish, the torpor, the toil 
Will have passed to other millions 
Consumed by the same desires. 
Ages will come and go, 
Darkness will blot the lights 
And the tower will be laid on the earth. 
The sea will remain 
Black and unchanging, 
The stars will look down 
Brilliant and unconcerned.

Beloved, 
Tho` sorrow, futility, defeat 
Surround us, 
They cannot bear us down. 
Here on the abyss of eternity 
Love has crowned us 
For a moment 
Victors.
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