THIRTY-TWO years since, up against the sun, Seven shapes, thin atomies to lower sight, Labouringly leapt and gained thy gabled height, And four lives paid for what the seven had won. They were the first by whom the deed was done, And when I look at thee, my mind takes flight To that day's tragic feat of manly might, As though, till then, of history thou hadst none. Yet ages ere men topped thee, late and soon Thou didst behold the planets lift and lower; Saw'st, maybe, Joshua's pausing sun and moon, And the betokening sky when Caesar's power Approached its bloody end; yea, even that Noon When darkness filled the earth till the ninth hour. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THOUGHTS OF A TINY PIG by DAVID IGNATOW TO JOHN BROWN by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE YOUNG WARRIOR by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON STREET-CRIES: 2. THE SHIP OF EARTH by SIDNEY LANIER ON CARPACCIO'S PICTURE: THE DREAM OF ST. URSALA; SONNET by AMY LOWELL A GUY I KNOW ON 47TH AND COTTAGE by CLARENCE MAJOR MONODY ON THE DEATH OF WILLIAM MARION REEDY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |