Classic Poem

We have grown very sapient with the years,
And many things beyond our fathers' dream
Have done — made manifold our eyes and ears,
Increased our hands with swollen strength of steam;
And we have trained the rivers to slow toil,
Driven with whips the red-maned fires of day,
To rear a dwelling-place upon fair soil,
Which may well hold Eternity at bay!
And yet, as to the clouds we urge the frame
Of climbing steel, the tongues of foreign men,
Their accents harshly mingling, still proclaim
The warning of mad Babel. Now as then
God holds us off. With all our wisdom high,
We have not built the tower to pierce the sky!