| |
| MEN said at vespers: “All is well!” | |
| In one wild night the city fell; | |
| Fell shrines of prayer and marts of gain | |
| Before the fiery hurricane. | |
| |
| On threescore spires had sunset shone, | 5 |
| Where ghastly sunrise looked on none. | |
| Men clasped each other’s hands, and said: | |
| “The City of the West is dead!” | |
| |
| Brave hearts who fought, in slow retreat, | |
| The fiends of fire from street to street, | 10 |
| Turned, powerless, to the blinding glare, | |
| The dumb defiance of despair. | |
| |
| A sudden impulse thrilled each wire | |
| That signalled round that sea of fire; | |
| Swift words of cheer, warm heart-throbs came; | 15 |
| In tears of pity died the flame! | |
| |
| From East, from West, from South and North, | |
| The messages of hope shot forth, | |
| And, underneath the severing wave, | |
| The world, full-handed, reached to save. | 20 |
| |
| Fair seemed the old; but fairer still | |
| The new, the dreary void shall fill | |
| With dearer homes than those o’erthrown, | |
| For love shall lay each corner-stone. | |
| |
| Rise, stricken city!—from thee throw | 25 |
| The ashen sackcloth of thy woe; | |
| And build, as to Amphion’s strain, | |
| To songs of cheer thy walls again! | |
| |
| How shrivelled in thy hot distress | |
| The primal sin of selfishness! | 30 |
| How instant rose, to take thy part, | |
| The angel in the human heart! | |
| |
| Ah! not in vain the flames that tossed | |
| Above thy dreadful holocaust; | |
| The Christ again has preached through thee | 35 |
| The Gospel of Humanity! | |
| |
| Then lift once more thy towers on high, | |
| And fret with spires the western sky, | |
| To tell that God is yet with us, | |
| And love is still miraculous! | 40 |
| |
