Bowery afternoon

Publication Instance Details #3178

Publication Overview

Translation	Is Multilingual	Explicit Irish Context?	Ekphrasis	Has Paratext?	Reference to News, Media or Technology
No	No	No	No	No	Yes

Details

Human Rights Issues	Poverty/Deprivation/Lack of Sustenance Racism/anti-Semitism/Sectarianism
Languages	English
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Notes	This poem was published in the sequence titled 'Manhattan Lights' in the collection 'The Ghetto and Other Poems' (1918). As indicated by the title, this poem is set in the Jewish district of New York, Bowery, a city area associated at that time with the working class and derelict buildings. Through the repetitive contrast between darkness and light, the poem portrays the dehumanising effects of poverty in this segregated urban setting. Themes revolving around notions of physical degeneration and economic deprivation permeate the lines written in free verse. These are contrasted to signs of affluence represented by remnants of grandiose architecture and the imposing presence of the Elevated train, a symbol of the industrial development that took place during the mid-19th century in Manhattan, NY.