The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Volume 1

ST. MICHAEL'S CHAPEL.

     When the vexed hubbub of our world of gain
     Roars round about me as I walk the street,
     The myriad noise of Traffic, and the beat
     Of Toil's incessant hammer, the fierce strain
     Of struggle hand to hand and brain to brain,
     Ofttimes a sudden dream my sense will cheat,
     The gaudy shops, the sky-piled roofs retreat,
     And all at once I stand enthralled again
     Within a marble minster over-seas.
     I watch the solemn gold-stained gloom that creeps
     To kiss an alabaster tomb, where sleeps
     A lady 'twixt two knights' stone effigies,
     And every day in dusky glory steeps
     Their sculptured slumber of five centuries.