The Magpie Sings the Great Depression:
Selections from DeWitt Clinton High School's Literary Magazine, 1929-1942

Foreward

The Magpie, June 1937, v. 21, n. 2., p. 4.

  Obscure vapors fill the air with
mystic infinity's prolific forces . . .
  Save where a flying creature
glides in sleepy winds—lost in the
fragile music of the silence . . .

But the fanciful waters shatter
  the mist;
And the waves of the sea
  flog a new land;
And the brine of the sea lave
  a new shore
Which rises to greet reality.
A yawning, fecund land of vernal
  velvet, and sylvan delight—
Where fauns linger to play rare
  Pannic tunes;
Where forests murmur their
  content . . .

* * *

 But out of the soils of the great
 terrain comes a figure of dust
 Who sings a varied song,
 Which fades into the land,
 And returns in accents strong.
This strange intruder
 unclothes the land,
 cuts deep into the flesh of soil,
 sows the seed, and gleans the
  fruit . . .
This trespasser
 harnesses the rivers,
 builds towers to the sky,
 cuts roads in a wilderness,
With the brine of his blood,
  (from the sea)
And the power of his arms
  (from the dust).

He grapples the land with his fist,
And shapes it into an America.

The Magpie Sings the Great Depression

Archive:  Year   |   Author/Artist  |   Subject
Home  |   Project Information  |   Resources