Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BUILDER, by WILLARD WATTLES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BUILDER, by                 Poet's Biography
First Line: Smoothing a cypress beam
Last Line: "heaven,"" he said."
Subject(s): Buildings & Builders; Carpenters; Christmas; Heaven; Nativity, The; Paradise


SMOOTHING a cypress beam
With a scarred hand,
I saw a carpenter
In a far land.

Down past the flat roofs
Poured the white sun;
But still he bent his back,
The patient one.

And I paused surprised
In that queer place
To find an old man
With a haunting face.

"Who art thou, carpenter,
Of the bowed head;
And what buildest thou?"
"Heaven," he said.





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