Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LINES TO THE BOSTON Y.M.C.A., by CHARLES LOUIS HENRY WAGNER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LINES TO THE BOSTON Y.M.C.A., by                    
First Line: Thou mighty force which builds today and well
Last Line: Has made this great association last.
Subject(s): Buildings & Builders; Walls


On the laying of the corner-stone of the New Building, October 3, 1912.

A signed copy of this poem was deposited in the cornerstone box of the Y. M. C.
A. Building

Thou mighty force which builds today and well
A fitting home to give expression to
Thy noble work which has no parallel
In this our day; we pledge to thee anew
Our strength, our love; and fervently we pray
That He Whose life has been thy glowing light
Will bless these walls which symbolize the way
Thou doest good,—the way of building right

Builder in men of character sublime,
Whose life outlasts such monuments as these
Which must give way to all-destroying Time
Despite their strength, and fall when Age decrees,
Thy work shall last; thy noblest building stands
Defying all the elements and e'en Eternity,
It is a house that was not made by hands,
Its cornerstone,—the Holy Trinity.

Teacher of Truth, men's bodies thou hast shown
To be the biding place of greater things
Than e'er were dreamed, or by our fathers known,
The gods of health, long bound by custom's strings;
Thou makest men where brutes had seemed to dwell,
Thou findest depths where shallows heretofore
Had marked Life's sea;—thou always builded well
For no reward but Love,—received no more.

If all the deeds which glorify thy past
Were marked by stones and built within this wall,
The World would stand amazed because so vast
Would be this pile that naught could hold it all;
Were half the things made possible through thee,
Or quarter known, thy name would ring for aye
Through unborn years, and men thy worth would see,
And pray the Lord thy strength to amplify.

Rise up, ye walls, your heads in splendor lift,
No grander heritage than yours I ken,
For you shall house God's greatest, noblest gift
To mortal kind—the gift to work for men.
Build strong, ye builders, typify in stone
The divine attitude which marks the past,
The sacrificial spirit, which alone
Has made this great Association last.





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