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Selected American and British Poems
Readability:Flesch–Kincaid Level: 5.3 听读级
Word Count: 21,933
AT THE SUMMIT OF THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT
Look North! A white-clad city fills This valley to its sloping hills; Here gleams the modest house of white, The statesman’s longed-for, dizzy height. Beyond, a pledge of love to one Who in two lands was Freedom’s son— The holder of an endless debt— Our nation’s brother, Lafayette. But yonder lines of costly homes And bristling spires and swelling domes, And far away from the spreading farms Where thrift displays substantial charms, And hamlets creeping out of sight, And cities full of wealth and might, Must own the fatherhood of him Whose glory Time can never dim. All who can reckon Freedom’s worth Would write across this whole broad earth, With pen dipped in the golden sun, The magic name of Washington! If we can keep the rules he gave This land he more than fought to save, Our future fame will glisten forth Grand as the winter-lighted North! * * * * * Look South!—where, in its coat of gray, The broad Potomac creeps away, And seeks the blue of distant skies; But pauses where the great chief lies Within his humble, hallowed tomb, Amid Mount Vernon’s deathless bloom. As glides this stream, the great course, past thee, First to the bay, and then the sea, So flowed thy life to rural rest, Ere thou wast heaven’s eternal guest. Oh strong, high man! Whose patriot heart Climbed from all common greeds apart; To whom men’s selfish ways were small, As from this tower, serenely tall (built that all years thy fame may know), Men look while creeping there below! How weak was power to thy clear gaze, Builder of nations joined in one, Kindler of splendors still to blaze, Finder of glories just begun! Live on, great sleeper! As this stone, Highest from earth than man has known, So shall be ranked thy solid worth, Highest of heroes on the earth! Happy, secure, and cherished name, Love is the pillar of thy fame; Thy praise comes from each patriot’s mouth, Warm as the sunbeams of the South! * * * * Look east! The Nation’s Castle walls Spread out in massive beauty now; Their lofty dome and pictured halls In homage to this summit bow. Oh, well that from these placid lands The marble spire obeisance win; But for the one for whom it stands, This chieftain-town had never been! Yon plot, so full of brain and will, Had staid a bleak and lonely hill! If at five thousand dizzy feet This shaft the whirling clouds could meet, Until our gaze for miles, might be, To the uncrowned by royal sea, ’
