An Abandoned Factory, Detroit
by Philip Levine
The gates are chained, the barbed-wire fencing stands,
An iron authority against the snow,
And this grey monument to common sense
Resists the weather. Fears of idle hands,
Of protest, men in league, and of the slow
Corrosion of their minds, still charge this fence.
Beyond, through broken windows one can see
Where the great presses paused between their strokes
And thus remain, in air suspended, caught
In the sure margin of eternity.
The cast-iron wheels have stopped; one counts the spokes
Which movement blurred, the struts inertia fought,
And estimates the loss of human power,
Experienced and slow, the loss of years,
The gradual decay of dignity.
Men lived within these foundries, hour by hour;
Nothing they forged outlived the rusted gears
Which might have served to grind their eulogy.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- Sonnet 135: Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy will by William Shakespeare
- In the Night poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Hymn To Death poem – Alfred Austin
- Владимир Высоцкий – Всё было не так, как хотелось вначале
- Please Don’t Judas Me by Mark Miller
- Daphnis And Chloe poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- Юнна Мориц – Малиновая кошка
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Ну вот – всё ладится, идет всё понемногу
- Prayer—O Thou Dread Power by Robert Burns
- I Went Down into the Desert by Vachel Lindsay
- Destiny Far Away
- Владимир Маяковский – Частушки (Милкой мне в подарок бурка…)
- The Death of Knowledge by Tomás Ó Cárthaigh
- The Prioress’s Tale [from Chaucer] by William Wordsworth
- Farewell to Eliza (Song) by Robert Burns
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).
Philip Levine ( 1928 – 2015) was an American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit. He taught for more than thirty years in the English department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well. He served on the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets from 2000 to 2006, and was appointed Poet Laureate of the United States for 2011–2012