Classic Poem

When the dawn split with sudden gold
A solid terror blocked the skies
With star-defying stone that told
Where some mad king in ages old
To Chaos offered sacrifice.

A gateway gods might have begun
(A man had dreamed of it and died)
Around waste flats: this huge deed done
Stared useless, shameless at the sun
An art's colossal suicide.

But through the arch the earth seemed bright
The still fields sweeter than a song,
A happy little world framed right
And through the arch the long roads white
Dragged me like silver chords along.

I pass beneath: I turn, descry
Back through the gateway e'er the same
Sweet baffling broken glimpse: then I
Stood, and thanked God with a great cry
For one man dead without a name.

One man who saw the old world's worth
And here for all the brave unfurled
The ancient banner of our earth
And reared in monstrous midnight birth
A portal worthy of the world.