A PUSHCART AT THE CURB
by
JOHN DOS PASSOS
* * * * *
_Books by John Dos Passos_
_NOVELS:_
_Three Soldiers_
_One Man's Initiation_
_Streets of Night_
_(In Preparation)_
_ESSAYS:_
_Rosinante to the Road Again_
_POEMS:_
_A Pushcart at the Curb_
* * * * *
A PUSHCART AT THE CURB
by
JOHN DOS PASSOS
[Decorative Illustration]
George H. Doran Company Publishers New York
Copyright, 1922, By George H. Doran Company
[Decorative Illustration]
_A Pushcart at the Curb. I_
Printed in the United States of America
TO THE MEMORY
OF
WRIGHT McCORMICK
WHO TUMBLED OFF A MOUNTAIN
IN MEXICO
My verse is no upholstered chariot Gliding oil-smooth on oiled wheels, No swift and shining modern limousine, But a pushcart, rather.
A crazy creaking pushcart, hard to push Round corners, slung on shaky patchwork wheels, That jolts and jumbles over the cobblestones Its very various lading:
A lading of Spanish oranges, Smyrna figs, Fly-specked apples, perhaps of the Hesperides, Curious fruits of the Indies, pepper-sweet ... Stranger, choose and taste.
_Dolo_
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
For permission to reprint certain of the poems in this volume, thanks are due _The Bookman_, _The Dial_, _Vanity Fair_, _The Measure_, and _The New York Evening Post_.
CONTENTS
PAGE
WINTER IN CASTILE 13
NIGHTS AT BASSANO 65
VAGONES DE TERCERA 109
QUAI DE LA TOURNELLE 139
ON FOREIGN TRAVEL 163
PHASES OF THE MOON 185
WINTER IN CASTILE
The promiscuous wind wafts idly from the quays A smell of ships and curious woods and casks And a sweetness from the gorse on the flowerstand And brushes with his cool careless cheek the cheeks Of those on the street; mine, an old gnarled man's, The powdered cheeks of the girl who with faded eyes Stands in the shadow; a sailor's scarred brown cheeks, And a little child's, who walks along whispering To her sufficient self. O promiscuous wind.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Pushcart at the Curb by John Dos Passos
- 2: Women are selling tuberoses in the square
- 3: And shining red bellshaped peppers
- 4: The pile of faggots in the square
- 5: Hats sink back in appropriate ecstasy
- 6: Run run run to see the soldiers
- 7: The spark quenched in their glazed eyes
- 8: Cigarette at an impudent tilt
- 9: Listening in the intimate silence
- 10: Came a breath of jessamine prophetic of summer
- 11: The champagne colored stockings of Venus
- 12: Pebbles scuttle under slipping feet
- 13: What cavalcade is this that clatters into Asolo
- 14: Strumming guitars and mellow lutes
- 15: The beaten flesh worships the swishing rod
- 16: Shrieks the inextinguishable laughter of the gods
- 17: Beyond the last grey gabled house in the village
- 18: In a hall on Olympus we held carouse
- 19: Three little harlots on the train from Zafra to the fair
- 20: Followed you with shuffling feet and upturned faces
- 21: At this same white marble cafe table
- 22: And of the pallid autumnal crocuses
- 23: Fleeing the white froth of orchards
- 24: Laughs and ripples never ceasing
- 25: A tuberose among brown oak leaves
- 26: Fill the pinkish parlor chairs
- 27: From clambering cold rockfaces of hills
- 28: Bundled pyramids of brown abreast
- 29: The camels growl and stretch out their necks
- 30: Their hands grip new spearshafts
- 31: The moon soars white above the stony street
- 32: A funeral clatters over the glimmering cobbles
- 33: Were they your brown hands O Eros
- 34: Where are no voices of singers
- 35: A Pushcart at the Curb by John Dos Passos
- 36: There are hands about my throat