Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, OLD CATHEDRAL HALL, by LEITH SCHACKEL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

OLD CATHEDRAL HALL, by                    
First Line: Close to the tracks in the smoke and the grime it is standing deserted
Last Line: Then, in the arms of the earth it will rest in a blanket of ashes.
Subject(s): Ruins


Close to the tracks in the smoke and the grime it is standing deserted.
Only the keenest of eyes can detect in it traces of splendor --
Splendor and beauty, created by hands that are quiet forever --
Hands that erected with tenderest touch, tall spires, fragile and slender.

Only the windows remain still undimmed by the soot of the engines.
Cleansed by the torrents of rain and the sharp-driven needles of winter;
Glowing with color, they live in the heart of the ruined cathedral,
Regal magenta and yellow, as rich as the gold of the minter.

Stately and dignified, standing erect in the squalor about it,
Peace in the cloister, now cob-webbed with silver and laden with memories.
Will not the sound of the bell from the thundering engines of steel
Wake it with stridulent voice from the depths of its somno- lent reveries?

Will it not start in its place at some deep-throated blast from a foundry,
Falling to dust, whence it came, with a lingering glance, as it crashes,
Up, where it once held a star on the tip of a shimmering steeple?
Then, in the arms of the earth it will rest in a blanket of ashes.





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