Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE HANGAR AT SUNNYVALE: 1937, by JANET LEWIS



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE HANGAR AT SUNNYVALE: 1937, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Above the marsh, a hollow monument
Last Line: Until the inordinate dream again return.
Alternate Author Name(s): Winters, Janet Lewis; Winters, Yvor, Mrs.
Subject(s): Airships


Above the marsh a hollow monument,
Ribbed with aluminum, enormous tent
Sheeted with silver, set to face the gale
Of the steady trade that swelled the clipper sail,
The hangar stands, with doors now buckled close
Against the summer wind, the empty house
Reserves a space shaped to the foundered dream.
The Macon, lost, moves with the ocean stream.

Level the marshes, far and low the hills,
The useless structure, firm on ample sills,
Rises incredible to state again:
Thus massive was the vessel, built in vain.
For this one purpose the long sides were planned
To lines like those of downward pouring sand,
Time-sifting sand; but Time immobile stayed,
In substance bound, in these bright walls delayed.

This housed the shape that plunged through stormy air.
Empty cocoon: yet was the vision fair
That like a firm bright cloud moved from the arch,
Leaving this roof to try a heavenly march;
Impermanent, impractical, designed
To frame a paradox and strongly bind
The weight, the weightless, in a living shape
To cruise the sky and round the cloudy Cape.

Less substance than a mathematic dream
Locked in the hollow keel and webbed beam!
Of the ingenious mind, the expensive pride,
The highest hope, the last invention tried:
And now the silver tent alone remains.
Slowly the memory of disaster wanes.
Still in the summer sun the bastions burn
Until the inordinate dream again return.





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