Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE LOWER RHINE, by LOUIS JONES MAGEE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LOWER RHINE, by                    
First Line: Above, in the castle-land
Last Line: Are the knights of the modern rhine.
Subject(s): Industry; Knights & Knighthood; Rhine (river), Europe


ABOVE, in the castle-land,
Are the fruits and forests and vines;
But here tall chimneys stand
Like clumps of desolate pines.

Here, from the end of night
Till weariness drives them to bed,
Men live by the firelight,
With iron roofs o'erhead.

With never a word or sound
Save the scuff of their wooden shoes,
They work in a ceaseless round,
With little to will or choose.

Each man is a link in a chain
That drags in a certain groove;
Each man is a gear in a train
Of wheels that must ever move.

'T is mostly dark with smoke,
The patch of sky they see;
Their lives are under the yoke
Of a mighty industry.

Beside the roller's crash
Is the silent might of man;
Along with the forge's flash
They're fashioning what you plan:

The blast, the molten flow,
The crucible of steel,
The ingot's cherry glow,
The finished rail and wheel.

Away in the distant blue
Is the old romance and the wine;
Down here in a world that's new
Are the knights of the modern Rhine.





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