“The Street” presents an image of working-class America that is troubled by cyclical neglect, misuse, and abuse by the wealthy elite. The speaker presents his own street, Rockwell Avenue (Line 16), in the context of a larger history, stretching back to the days of emperors. It projects into a future where all will be judged by the dead, suggesting the place is part of a larger cycle of a society that builds its wealth and power on the backs of the poor, specifically the immigrants and those who work with their hands.

The poem begins with the concept of a street in general, not the speaker’s street in particular. The first descriptors of the street are “Streaked and fretted with effort” (Line 1), demonstrating a place that is not clean but rather carries the proof of work that common people have done. They have dirtied it with their effort, rather than cleaning it or improving it. Though it might be “Streaked” (Line 1) with effort, it is necessary, and “All roads lead from it” (Line 4).

The emperor, preparing for the funeral of his "favorite" (Line 7) child, is dependent on the street for creating a parade funeral.