Whitechapel
Noise;
Iron hoofs, iron wheels, iron din
Of drays and trams and feet passing;
Iron
Beaten to a vast mad cacophony.
In vain the shrill, far cry
Of swallows sweeping by ;
In vain the silence and green
Of meadows Apriline ;
In vain the clear white rain —
Soot; mud;
A nation maddened with labour;
Interminable collision of energies—
[ . . . ]
Richard Aldington's poem "Whitechapel" was published in the 1916 Some Imagist Poets anthology. To read the poem in full in a digitized version of this publication, follow the links below: