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Home  »  Poetry: A Magazine of Verse  »  Emanuel Carnevali

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

To the Poets

Emanuel Carnevali

From “The Splendid Commonplace”

ESSENCES of the peoples’ beautiful selves,

Violins whose strings quiver

With long, soft, delicate harmonies—

Even when touched by the world’s rough fingers,

Even when touched by Grief’s cold fingers—

Think of the day when you, sleeping in your graves,

Shall be awakened by the thunder of your own voices

And by the strong, cool winds of your own music:

For in the fertile soil of the years

Your voices will blossom and become thunder,

Your music will become winds that purify and create.