Main Street And Other Poems by Joyce Kilmer

(For the Rev. John J. Burke, C. S. P.)

There was a murkier tinge in London's air As if the honest fog blushed black for shame. Fools sang of sin, for other fools' acclaim, And Milton's wreath was tossed to Baudelaire. The flowers of evil blossomed everywhere, But in their midst a radiant lily came Candescent, pure, a cup of living flame, Bloomed for a day, and left the earth more fair.