Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE FORCES AT WORK IN THE CITY, by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE FORCES AT WORK IN THE CITY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Like crystal torrents perfect in desire
Last Line: In new invincible violence of desire!
Subject(s): London


LIKE crystal torrents perfect in desire
For all the winds of sea and waves that fill
The gulf whereon day trails his robes of fire,
So moves man's dominant will.
'Mid iron hammers that clang and then vibrate,
Falling and intermingling in one tone,
So does his force stand forging shapes of fate
To cast them into the city, one by one.
As some red bomb that bursts on towers of might,
So does his soul explode and shake the earth,
Into new cataclysms of convulsive death,
Into light-leaping new fires of red birth.
His song of songs, sun-drunken tragic Queen,
He scatters delirious like gold rain adown
Your nights and like red roses down your days,
His song of songs, merged in one mighty tone.
And from his heart's dance-rhythms evermore
It struggles in dazzling spasms, seeking higher
To shatter its broken and triumphant spray,
In new invincible violence of desire!





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