University of Virginia Library


23

II.

No city sent from heaven as a bride
Is mine, but poor, and needing the attire
That I may weave for her in songs of fire
Before she can be unto love allied,
Meet for a hero's and a husband's side,
Able towards her own sunset to aspire.
I found her draggled, slip-shod, in the mire,
Her pure potential sovereignty denied,
And vowed myself to raise her; therefore I,
Brought down from Isis unto where the Thames
For many an arch her stately descent stems,
Will celebrate my London till I die,
If haply o'er her head without a sigh
Some day may flame the sunset diadems.