 | The Poetry of Real Life |  |
105
ON MACHINERY.
Ye Poets, who from steam and railroad shrink,And, with poetic maledictions, ban
All that falls not at once into your plan,
Ye have mista'en your calling, if ye think
That Art and Science have not power to sink
Fresh shafts into the Muses' mine, nor can
Lay open new Castalian founts to Man,
Whence greatest Poets will be proud to drink!
Nought e'er on earth shall Poesy's high place
Usurp, but e'en to Matter her embrace
Divine should spiritual offspring bear—
Then here, between them, with all heavenly grace,
The banns of holy wedlock I declare,
Whom God hath joined let none asunder tear!
| The Poetry of Real Life | |