Severe against the pleasant arc of sky <br />The great stone box is cruelly displayed. <br />The street becomes more dreary from its shade, <br />And vagrant breezes touch its walls and die. <br />Here sullen convicts in their chains might lie, <br />Or slaves toil dumbly at some dreary trade. <br />How worse than folly is their labor made <br />Who cleft the rocks that this might rise on high! <br /> <br />Yet, as I look, I see a woman's face <br />Gleam from a window far above the street. <br />This is a house of homes, a sacred place, <br />By human passion made divinely sweet. <br />How all the building thrills with sudden grace <br />Beneath the magic of Love's golden feet!<br /><br />Alfred Joyce Kilmer<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-apartment-house-2/
