Central Park

Choose your gate and enter in
From the city’s roar and din,
Scholars, artizans, delight
In this antidote to height

From the city’s ceaseless rush
From the city’s concrete vice
To a green and cloistered hush
To a grassy paradise

From those high and thrusting towers
From the traffic’s constant blare
To your still and peaceful bowers
To your sweet and fragrant air

Far the rectilinear street
Far the vertical and tall
Here grey rock and water meet
Here the cherry blossoms fall

And on Bethesda’s glorious stair
Sense the spirits lingering there
Of those men whose work we share
When we tread your meadows fair