| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | Upstairs Downstairs | | By Hervey Allen |
| | From “The Sea-islands”
THE JUDGE, who lives impeccably upstairs | |
| With dull decorum and its implication, | |
| Has all his servants in to family prayers | |
| And edifies his soul with exhortation. | |
| Meanwhile, his blacks live wastefully downstairs; | 5 |
| Not always chaste, they manage to exist | |
| With less decorum than the judge upstairs, | |
| And find withal a something that he missed. | |
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| This painful fact a Swede philosopher, | |
| Who tarried for a fortnight in our city, | 10 |
| Remarked one evening at the meal, before | |
| We paralyzed him silent with our pity; | |
| Saying the black man, living with the white, | |
| Had given more than white men could requite. | | | | |
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