O WONDROUS age! a wondrous age we live in, When Stainmore echoes with the awful din; What novel sounds the eighty men are giving, While fixing firm the iron pillars in ... All hail to Steam! all hail to men of Brain, Who sweep all obstacles before them, Cut down the hills, and through the mountains bore, And make admiring crowds adore them. ... "The cloud-cap't Towers, the solemn Temples," (As Shakespeare tells us in his verse sublime) Our Bridge at last shall crumble—pass away— When there shall also be and end of Time. Nay, "the great Globe itself," he plainly says, Shall disappear, and then be seen no more; We don't believe this creed—our world will still Move round the sun as she hath done before. But when "The Archangel's trump shall sound" (As good John Wesley piously sings), May we among the heavenly host be found, When we have bid farewell to earthly things. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOW IT STRIKES A CONTEMPORARY by ROBERT BROWNING THE THANKSGIVING IN BOSTON HARBOR [JUNE 12, 1630] by HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH MY GARDEN by RALPH WALDO EMERSON DARBY AND JOAN by FREDERIC EDWARD WEATHERLY COMPOSED BY THE SIDE OF GRASMERE by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH BRUCE: HOW KING ROBERT WAS HUNTED BY THE SLEUTH-HOUND by JOHN BARBOUR |