MONOTONOUS and regular
And mournful the allotments lie,
And night,
As if to hide their misery from sight,
Falls, fold on fold, from the cold winter sky.
A stretch of wretched garden-land
Backed by a row of tenements that cringe
Monotonous and regular
Upon the city’s outer fringe.
Between it and the pavement-edge
Straggles a torn and ragged hedge ;
And, here and there about it, stand
Rude sheds of planking smeared with tar ;
While, in a corner, a rough mast and spar
Flutters for flag
A tattered filthiness of rag.
There in this world of fog and smoke,
Monotonous and regular
Bent figures move about;
They are the pitiable folk.
From their long day of toil let out
From their day-labour in the factory
That looms, a square-cut menace on the sky,
Near-by.
Here, one will plant potatoes, row on row,
Monotonous and regular
Another, here, will grow
Carrots and turnips, beans and peas,
Or green and purple cabbages ;
While each will sow
Nasturtium or sweet-pea some flower to bring
Him light and gladness in the spring.
Though scarce shall the bud break, till from the
air
Damp soot shall fall to shroud it in despair
Though every leaf
Shall hide its hope in hoods of grief
Though no flower-scent shall purify
This stench of oil, this reek of smoke,
Where a poor starved humanity,
And its poor produce, starved and stultified,
Grow side by side.
(J Redwood Anderson)
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Based on Topics: Night Poems, Sense & Perception Poems, Flowers Poems, Spring Poems, Grief Poems, Cities Poems, Humanity PoemsBased on Keywords: pitiable, near-by, filthiness, nasturtium, planking, sweet-pea, day-labour, allotments, square-cut, garden-land, straggles