Enormously it lifts Its towers against the splendour of the west; Like some wild dream that drifts Before the mind, and at the will's behest,— Enchantment-based, gigantic steel and stone,— Is given permanence; A concrete fact, Complete, alone, Glorious, immense, Such as no nation here on earth has known: Epitomizing all That is American, that stands for youth, And strength and truth; That's individual, And beautiful and free,— Resistless strength and tireless energy. Even as a cataract, Its superb fact Suggests vast forces Nature builds with—Joy, And Power and Thought, She to her aid has brought For eons past, will bring for eons yet to be, Shaping the world to her desire: the three Her counsellors constantly, Her architects, through whom her dreams come true,— Her workmen, bringing forth, With toil that shall not cease, Mountains and plains and seas, That make the Earth the glory that it is: And, one with these, Such works of man as this, This building, towering into the blue, A beacon, round which like an ocean wide, Circles and flows the restless human tide. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WAVING OF THE CORN by SIDNEY LANIER AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA by OSCAR WILDE THE QUEEN IN FRANCE; AN ANCIENT SCOTTISH BALLAD by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN LULLABY by VIRGINIA FRAZER BOYLE ON A LEGAL STAIRCASE by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB |