Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE BEAUTIFUL CITY, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The beautiful city! Forever Last Line: And loosen the trump at the gates. Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F. Subject(s): Beauty; Cities; Fantasy; Sea; Urban Life; Ocean | ||||||||
THE Beautiful City! Forever Its rapturous praises resound; We fain would behold it -- but never A glimpse of its glory is found: We slacken our lips at the tender White breasts of our mothers to hear Of its marvelous beauty and splendor; -- We see -- but the gleam of a tear! Yet never the story may tire us -- First graven in symbols of stone -- Rewritten on scrolls of papyrus And parchment, and scattered and blown By the winds of the tongues of all nations, Like a litter of leaves wildly whirled Down the rack of a hundred translations, From the earliest lisp of the world. We compass the earth and the ocean, From the Orient's uttermost light, To where the last ripple in motion Lips hem of the skirt of the night, -- But the Beautiful City evades us -- No spire of it glints in the sun -- No glad-bannered battlement shades us When all our long journey is done. Where lies it? We question and listen; We lean from the mountain, or mast, And see but dull earth, or the glisten Of seas inconceivably vast: The dust of the one blurs our vision, The glare of the other our brain, Nor city nor island Elysian In all of the land or the main! We kneel in dim fanes where the thunders Of organs tumultuous roll, And the longing heart listens and wonders, And the eyes look aloft from the soul: But the chanson grows fainter and fainter, Swoons wholly away and is dead; And our eyes only reach where the painter Has dabbled a saint overhead. The Beautiful City! O mortal, Fare hopefully on in thy quest, Pass down through the green grassy portal That leads to the Valley of Rest; There first passed the One who, in pity Of all thy great yearning, awaits To point out the Beautiful City, And loosen the trump at the gates. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HALL OF OCEAN LIFE by JOHN HOLLANDER JULY FOURTH BY THE OCEAN by ROBINSON JEFFERS BOATS IN A FOG by ROBINSON JEFFERS CONTINENT'S END by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE FIGUREHEAD by LEONIE ADAMS A BOY'S MOTHER by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY |
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