Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SPARK OUT OF HEAVEN, by JOHN RUSSELL MCCARTHY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SPARK OUT OF HEAVEN, by                    
First Line: Dull with toil
Last Line: For a star.
Subject(s): Progress


Dull with toil
When the dawn is red,
A market-load
Upon her head, --
The long trail echoes
A woman's tread.

Weary with dreams
That lone men know,
Across the desert
Slow and slow,
With caravans
The merchants go.

Urging on
With eager hands,
The pioneer
Across the sands
Drives his oxen
To promised lands.

(Build us a world,
O Pioneer,
With toil and glory
And bitter tear,
That we may follow
Toil and tear!)

Steam! And the throttle
Across the plain
Makes neighbors of cities
And fields of grain-An iron god
By a dreaming brain.

Spark out of heaven
Streaking down,
And night is day
In the laboring town.

Spark out of heaven
Hot and fast,
And men have wings
Of birds at last.

(Build your dreams
O Pioneer,
That we may follow
Toil and tear!)

Spark out of heaven
Guided and bound,
And truth goes flashing
The wide world round.

Spark and rubber
And tempered steel,
Five-ton magic
On massive wheel, --
Suddenly
The giants reel.

Out of the dust
Where dream-things are,
Out of the sky
Between star and star,
Was wrought at last
The magic car.

A woman's head
Goes laughing free,
Lone old merchants
Bend the knee,
While one man sings
At the work of three.

Long lonely hills
Shall know the tread
Of men who gather
Grain for bread --
By man-made wonders
Men are fed.

Not long shall poor
In cities dread
The ghost of famine
Overhead.
By spark and steel
The ghost is dead!

(Build on, brave dreamers!
Far and wide
The millions gather
To your side-Upon your dreams
A world shall ride.)

Song of the Earth
On viewless wing
Shall pierce the void
Where planets swing --
On Venus' hills
Man's voice shall sing.

Spark from heaven
And brain of man,
These two met
And dreams began, --
Who shall bound
The wonder-plan?

For one shall build
A wonder-car
And ride the blue
Where planets are --
Invading heaven
For a star.





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