 | "Until the Day Break," |  |
217
BLUE ABOVE.
Above your tallest chimneys,
Ye men of Glasgow, rise!
There are grander things than chimneys
In these forgotten skies.
Ye men of Glasgow, rise!
There are grander things than chimneys
In these forgotten skies.
Leave gloriously beneath you
Your dingy demi-jour,
Your fog, and smoke, and steam-drift,
Your palpable obscure.
Your dingy demi-jour,
Your fog, and smoke, and steam-drift,
Your palpable obscure.
218
There is blue above your city;
There are stars above the blue,
Unbegrimed and unbemisted,
Though shaded from your view;
There are stars above the blue,
Unbegrimed and unbemisted,
Though shaded from your view;
Above your masts and pendants,
Above your house-top wires,
Above the Stygian columns
That crown your furnace fires.
Above your house-top wires,
Above the Stygian columns
That crown your furnace fires.
Aim high, yet higher, higher,
Beyond the planets seven;
Your smoke hath not yet tainted
The golden air of heaven.
Beyond the planets seven;
Your smoke hath not yet tainted
The golden air of heaven.
At your feet see yonder ladder,
Right through the city haze;
It riseth to the mansions
Of everlasting praise.
Right through the city haze;
It riseth to the mansions
Of everlasting praise.
219
On that city gate it resteth,
Where all is crystal clear;
No smoke, no mist, no dimness,
In that fair atmosphere.
Where all is crystal clear;
No smoke, no mist, no dimness,
In that fair atmosphere.
December, 1879.
| "Until the Day Break," | |