Lo, I stand Here on this brow's crown of the city's head That crowns its lovely body, till death's hour Waste it; but now the dew of dawn and birth Is fresh upon it from thy womb, and we Behold it born how beauteous; one day more I see the world's wheel of the circling sun Roll up rejoicing to regard on earth This one thing goodliest, fair as heaven or he, Worth a god's gaze or strife of gods; but now Would this day's ebb of their spent wave of strife Sweep it to sea, wash it on wreck, and leave A costless thing contemned; and in our stead, Where these walls were and sounding streets of men, Make wide a waste for tongueless water-herds And spoil of ravening fishes; that no more Should men say, Here was Athens. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BRUCE AND THE SPIDER by BERNARD BARTON STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING by ROBERT FROST YEARS OF THE MODERN by WALT WHITMAN FANTAISIES DECORATIVES: 2. LES BALLOONS by OSCAR WILDE VULTURES by GHALIB IBN RIBAH AL-HAJJAM ON THE ENGINE BY NIGHT by ALEXANDER ANDERSON |