Publication information

Source: Independent
Source type: magazine
Document type: poem
Document title: “Buffalo”
Author(s): Coates, Florence Earle
Date of publication: 10 October 1901
Volume number: 53
Issue number: 2758
Pagination: 2389

 
Citation
Coates, Florence Earle. “Buffalo.” Independent 10 Oct. 1901 v53n2758: p. 2389.
 
Transcription
full text
 
Keywords
Buffalo, NY (poetry); Pan-American Exposition (poetry).
 
Named persons
none.
 
Document


Buffalo

A TRANSIENT city, marvelously fair,
     Humane, harmonious, yet nobly free,
     She built for pure delight and memory.
At her command, by lake and garden rare,
Pylon and tower majestic rose in air,
     And sculptured forms of grace and symmetry.
     Then came a thought of God, and, reverently,—
“Let there be Light!” she said; and Light was there.
O miracle of splendor! Who could know
     That Crime, insensate, egoist and blind,
          Destructive, causeless, caring but to smite,
     Would in its dull Cimmerian gropings find
A sudden way to fill those courts with wo,
     And swallow up that radiance in night?

  GERMANTOWN, PHILADELPHIA.