Ghetto Twilight

Alter Brody

1918

An infinite weariness comes into the faces of the old tenements,
As they stand massed together on the block,
Tall and thoughtful silent,
In the enveloping twilight.
Pensively,
They eye each other across the street,
Through their dim windows—
With a sad recognizing stare,
Watching the red glow fading in the distance,
At the end of the street,
Behind the black church spires;
Watching the vague sky lowering overhead,
Purple with clouds of colored smoke
From the extinguished sunset;
Watching the tired faces coming home from work,
Like dry-breasted hags
Welcoming their children to their withered arms.

Credits

Alter Brody, “Ghetto Twilight”, from A Family Album and Other Poems (New York: B. W. Huebsch, 1918), pp. 18–24, 36, 39. Used with permission of the author's estate.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 8.

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Creator Bio

Alter Brody

1895–1979

The American poet Alter Brody was born in Ukraine and brought to the United States at age eight. He was educated in New York City public schools and rapidly became conversant in American culture and literature. At a young age he began contributing to well-known literary and public affairs magazines and attracted attention for his poetry. In the 1920s, however, his literary output diminished as he was drawn into political activism, specifically writing articles in praise of the Soviet Union. In 1934, he announced his intention to publish a wide-ranging anthology of Yiddish literature in English translation, but it never appeared. In the end, he disappeared from the literary scene and little is known of his later life.

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