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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
EAT AND WALK, by JAMES NORMAN HALL Poet's Biography First Line: There's a three-penny lunch on dover street Last Line: The rule of the place is eat and walk. | |||
THERE'S A THREE-PENNY Lunch on Dover Street With a cardboard sign in the window: EAT. Three steps down to the basement room, Two gas jets in a sea of gloom; Four-square counter, stove in the center, Heavy odor of food as you enter; A kettle of soup as large as a vat, Potatoes, cabbage, morsels of fat Bubbling up in a savory smoke -- Food for the gods when the gods are broke. A wrecked divinity serving it up, A hunk of bread and a steaming cup; Three penny each, or two for a nickel; An extra cent for a relish of pickle. Slopping it up, no time for the graces -- Why should they care, these men with faces Gaunt with hunger, battered with weather, In walking the streets for days together? No delicate sipping, no leisurely talk -- The rule of the place is Eat and Walk. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IN FLANDERS by JAMES NORMAN HALL THE CRICKETERS OF FLANDERS by JAMES NORMAN HALL THE MOUNTAIN WHIPPOORWILL (A GEORGIA ROMANCE) by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET BEYOND THE POTOMAC by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE FOR AN ALLEGORICAL DANCE OF WOMEN (BY ANDREA MANTEGNA) by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI CITY OF ORGIES by WALT WHITMAN LINES WRITTEN BY A DEATH-BED by MATTHEW ARNOLD |
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