| Louis Untermeyer, ed. (1885–1977). Modern American Poetry. 1919. |
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| Arthur Davison Ficke. 1883– |
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| 99. Portrait of an Old Woman |
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| SHE limps with halting painful pace, | |
| Stops, wavers and creeps on again; | |
| Peers up with dim and questioning face, | |
| Void of desire or doubt or pain. | |
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| Her cheeks hang gray in waxen folds | 5 |
| Wherein there stirs no blood at all. | |
| A hand, like bundled cornstalks, holds | |
| The tatters of a faded shawl. | |
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| Where was a breast, sunk bones she clasps; | |
| A knot jerks where were woman-hips; | 10 |
| A ropy throat sends writhing gasps | |
| Up to the tight line of her lips. | |
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| Here strong the city's pomp is poured... | |
| She stands, unhuman, bleak, aghast: | |
| An empty temple of the Lord | 15 |
| From which the jocund Lord has passed. | |
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| He has builded him another house, | |
| Whenceforth his flame, renewed and bright, | |
| Shines stark upon these weathered brows | |
| Abandoned to the final night. | 20 |
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