The Great Valley

THE GREAT VALLEY
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO

By EDGAR LEE MASTERS AUTHOR OF “SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY”, “SONGS AND SATIRES,” ETC. New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1916 All rights reserved
Copyright, 1916, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. ——— Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1916. Reprinted November, 1916. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. TO THE MEMORY OF SQUIRE DAVIS and LUCINDA MASTERS WHO, CLOSE TO NATURE, ONE IN DEEP RELIGIOUS FAITH, THE OTHER IN PANTHEISTIC RAPTURE AND HEROISM, LIVED NEARLY A HUNDRED YEARS IN THIS LAND OF ILLINOIS I INSCRIBE THE GREAT VALLEY IN ADMIRATION OF THEIR GREAT STRENGTH, MASTERY OF LIFE, HOPEFULNESS, CLEAR AND BEAUTIFUL DEMOCRACY Edgar Lee Masters

Here the old Fort stood When the river bent southward. Now because the world pours itself into Chicago The Lake runs into the river Past docks and switch-yards, And under bridges of iron.
Sand dunes stretched along the lake for miles. There was a great forest in the Loop. Now Michigan Avenue lies Between miles of lights, And the Rialto blazes Where the wolf howled.
In the loneliness of the log-cabin, Across the river, The fur-trader played his fiddle When the snow lay About the camp of the Pottawatomies In the great forest. Now to the music of the Kangaroo Hop, And Ragging the Scale, And La Seduccion, The boys and girls are dancing In a cafe near Lake Street.
The world is theirs now. There is neither a past nor a to-morrow, Save of dancing. Nor do they know that behind them In the seed not yet sown There are eyes which will open upon Chicago, And feet which will blossom for the dance, And hands which will reach up And push them into the silence Of the old fiddler.