WELL done! The statue, on its base of granite, Stands in the sunlight, perfect and complete, And like a visitor from some strange planet, Curbing his steed beside the crowded street, A million curious eyes already scan it, And, with delighted gaze, its advent greet. The end has crowned the work; the high endeavor, And the long toil, with full success are blest; And while the city stands, henceforth, forever, Firm as to-day this noble form shall rest, Nor shall the hand of Time or Violence sever Its strength and beauty from that granite crest. It is well placed; the tide of life, incessant, With ceaseless echoes, like the mighty voice Of many waters, sweeps the spacious crescent, Where, grand and calm, above the stir and noise, A fitting type of duty ever present, It keeps, unmoved, its graceful equipoise. Alike through storm and sunshine; when the torrid, Untempered rays of summer fiercely smite, Or the first snow-flakes crown the ample forehead, And wrap the figure in their robe of white, Or wintry tempests, with forebodings horrid Of distant shipwreck, fill the black midnight. Be thus perpetual! with the consecration Of art, and memory, and hopes that warm With future glories for each generation, Keep still, unchanged, the same majestic form, And, through all tempests that may shake the nation, Still sit supremely, and survive the storm! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A SHROPSHIRE LAD: 62 by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN OPPORTUNITY by NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI DOLORES by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE THE EAGLE AND THE MOLE by ELINOR WYLIE SS. SIMON & JUDE by JOSEPH BEAUMONT LETTER TO B.W. PROCTOR, ESQ., FROM OXFORD; MAY, 1825 by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES |