In Boston Grew the Cotton Mills (Plutonic Sonnets 119)

In Boston grew the cotton mills, and soon

The mills made fortunes; from the fortunes grew

The Boston Brahmin class. With silver spoon

In mouth were born the children of these few.

And of no small concern to this high class

Was seeing that its children’s education

(At Harvard) would be anything but crass,

And altogether fitting to their station.

But cotton could not be forever king,

And newer industries were taking root

In other cities; Brahmins felt the sting

Of seeing such new centers past them shoot.

So as they sipped their tea on Beacon Hill,

They worried that their town was standing still.