OLD rails like twin steel ribbons stretch away O'er endless acres seldom kissed by rain. This is the wide unwatered waste of plain, Our arid pastures spread with sterile clay; Here bounteous nature feared to flaunt display Knowing her rich reserves were called in vain, And man within his now-luxurious train Sees cheerless distances and scorns to stay: Thus lies it lonely, lost to fruit and flower, To labor's wand and capital's vast dream; And it shall still be barren to that hour When we shall rise resolving to redeem; Then will it bloom in magic grace and power Fair as a farm by some Iowan stream. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 38. THE MORROW'S MESSAGE by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 129 by ALFRED TENNYSON AT A READING by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH IN VINCULIS; SONNETS WRITTEN IN AN IRISH PRISON: GOD IS MY WITNESS by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT O.M.B. (DIED NOVEMBER, 1874) by FORD MADOX BROWN LIFE by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING APPLE-PARING NIGHT IN VERMONT by DANIEL LEAVENS CADY |