Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE, by CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH Poem Explanation Poet's Biography First Line: A wondrous light is filling the air Last Line: The soul of the nineteenth century. | ||||||||
A wondrous light is filling the air, And rimming the clouds of the old despair; And hopeful eyes look up to see Truth's mighty electricity, -- Auroral shimmerings swift and bright, That wave and flash in the silent night, -- Magnetic billows travelling fast, And flooding all the spaces vast From dim horizon to farthest cope Of heaven, in streams of gathering hope. Silent they mount and spread apace, And the watchers see old Europe's face Lit with expression new and strange, -- The prophecy of coming change. Meantime, while thousands, wrapt in dreams, Sleep heedless of the electric gleams, Or ply their wonted work and strife, Or plot their pitiful games of life; While the emperor bows in his formal halls, And the clerk whirls on at the masking balls; While the lawyer sits at his dreary files, And the banker fingers his glittering piles, And the priest kneels down at his lighted shrine, And the fop flits by with his mistress fine, -- The diplomat works at his telegraph wires: His back is turned to the heavenly fires. Over him flows the magnetic tide, And the candles are dimmed by the glow outside. Mysterious forces overawe, Absorb, suspend the usual law. The needle stood northward an hour ago; Now it veers like a weathercock to and fro. The message he sends flies not as once; The unwilling wires yield no response. Those iron veins that pulsed but late From a tyrant's will to a people's fate, Flowing and ebbing with feverish strength, Are seized by a Power whose breadth and length, Whose height and depth, defy all gauge Save the great spirit of the age. The mute machine is moved by a law That knows no accident or flaw, And the iron thrills to a different chime Than that which rang in the dead old time. For Heaven is taking the matter in hand, And baffling the tricks of the tyrant band. The sky above and the earth beneath Heave with a supermundane breath. Half-truths, for centuries kept and prized, By higher truths are polarized. Like gamesters on a railroad train, Careless of stoppage, sun or rain, We juggle, plot, combine, arrange, And are swept along by the rapid change. And some who from their windows mark The unwonted lights that flood the dark, Little by little, in slow surprise Lift into space their sleepy eyes; Little by little are made aware That a spirit of power is passing there, -- That a spirit is passing, strong and free, -- The soul of the nineteenth century. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BOBOLINKS by CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH THE PINES AND THE SEA by CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH A CHILD-SAVIOUR (A TRUE STORY) by CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH A NIGHT-PICTURE by CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH A POET'S SOLILOQUY by CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH A QUESTION by CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH A WORD TO PHILOSOPHERS by CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH AFTER THE CENTENNIAL (A HOPE) by CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH AFTER-LIFE by CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH AN OLD CAT'S CONFESSIONS by CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH |
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