Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 147.djvu/443
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
1890.]
In Praise of Vulcan.
429
IN PRAISE OF VULCAN.
I.—THE FORTH BRIDGE.
When the wild men from Pentland’s shaggy side
Stared at the Fifeshire woodlands, did they dream
This fiery dragon with its lungs of steam
Would make the heaven its pathway, and would glide
With cloud and sound above the wondering tide?
Could they have hoped hot Haste would drive its team
Straight for the gulf, and leap yon ocean stream,
High o’er Inchgarvie’s isle, with double stride?
Nay, but the heart of iron was in the land,
The soul of fire, the strength of lifted arm;
The breath of wind was theirs; one thing alone
They knew not—this—how God Himself had planned
Mortals should conquer Earth, and bind in one
Our broken world, with commerce for a charm.
Stared at the Fifeshire woodlands, did they dream
This fiery dragon with its lungs of steam
Would make the heaven its pathway, and would glide
With cloud and sound above the wondering tide?
Could they have hoped hot Haste would drive its team
Straight for the gulf, and leap yon ocean stream,
High o’er Inchgarvie’s isle, with double stride?
Nay, but the heart of iron was in the land,
The soul of fire, the strength of lifted arm;
The breath of wind was theirs; one thing alone
They knew not—this—how God Himself had planned
Mortals should conquer Earth, and bind in one
Our broken world, with commerce for a charm.
II.—THE EIFFEL TOWER.
The men who builded Babel, day by day
Saw the great city less, the plains more wide,
Till God sent down confusion for their pride,
And tower and trench sank back to common clay.
Nor better fared the men who far away
Beheld their harbour giant o’er the tide,
For lo! earth trembled, and the people cried,
And Rhodes’ Colossus crashed into the bay.
But this transcendent tower of magic birth,
That tames the lightning-flash and mocks the thunder,
Has set a star in Heaven,—with upturned eyes
The nations meet, and pass in marvel under,
And humbled, in the silence of surprise
They find a long-lost language of the earth.
Saw the great city less, the plains more wide,
Till God sent down confusion for their pride,
And tower and trench sank back to common clay.
Nor better fared the men who far away
Beheld their harbour giant o’er the tide,
For lo! earth trembled, and the people cried,
And Rhodes’ Colossus crashed into the bay.
But this transcendent tower of magic birth,
That tames the lightning-flash and mocks the thunder,
Has set a star in Heaven,—with upturned eyes
The nations meet, and pass in marvel under,
And humbled, in the silence of surprise
They find a long-lost language of the earth.
H. D. Rawnsley.