Samuel McCoy - A Sweetheart: Thompson Street lyrics

Queen of all streets, Fifth Avenue Stretches her slender limbs From the great Arch of Triumph, on, - On, where the distance dims The splendours of her j**elled robes, Her granite draperies; The magic, sunset-smitten walls That veil her marble knees; For ninety squares she lies a queen, Superb, bare, unashamed, Yielding her beauty scornfully To worshippers unnamed. But at her feet her sister glows, A daughter of the South: Squalid, immeasurably mean, - But oh! her hot sweet mouth! My Thompson Street! a Tuscan girl, Hot with life's wildest blood; Her black shawl on her black, black hair, Her brown feet stained with mud; A scarlet blossom at her lips, A new babe at her breast; A singer at a wine-shop door, (Her lover unconfessed). Listen! a hurdy-gurdy plays - Now alien melodies: She smiles, she cannot quite forget The mother over-seas. But she no less is mine alone, Mine, mine! . . . Who may I be? Have I betrayed her from her home? I am called Liberty!