THE juggernauting trams and the prolonged Crash of the Cafeterias at noon Are silenced, and the ghostly clouds are thronged With towers floating past a cloudy moon. The buildings, in a faint, unearthly glow, Tremble in sourceless light and melting shade; They stir like blossomed wattle lifting slow As a remembered wind moves down the glade. Out of the years of chaffering, out of greed; From crude material, in deep desire; Out of some nameless, searching human need Arose these towers for traders on the mire. The golden haze, approaching like a wraith, Transformed the domes into a living faith; Stores became faery temples when complete, And far too holy for men's sullied feet; Translucent, magical, scarcely a part Of life nor fruit of human hope or art. Not from the stones or the mason's blue-print plan These symbols of the spirit's vaster span! Maybe the coral of the Barrier Reef, In spite of time and thrashing storms and the filth of shags, Could raise in blind compulsion, without knowledge or belief, A pearly lighthouse over its own hull-tearing crags! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DEDICATION IN THESE DAY by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE BIRDS OF VIETNAM by HAYDEN CARRUTH LOVE BEING ALL ONE by ROBERT FROST THE MEASURE OF THE YEAR by JAMES GALVIN FRAGMENT by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON |