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| THEY stormed the forts of Nature, | |
| And marched with blast and drill | |
| On her bulwark cliffs and sapping swamps,— | |
| Her strength against their skill. | |
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| Though her torrents twisted their bridges | 5 |
| Like the horns of a mountain ram | |
| And burst like a hungry tiger | |
| Through the buttressed walls of their dam; | |
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| They threw out new spans like spiders, | |
| And copied the beaver’s art, | 10 |
| And broke the desert’s slumber | |
| With bloom in its rainless heart. | |
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| They tunneled her snowy shoulders, | |
| Or wriggled up like a snake, | |
| And laced her with iron girders | 15 |
| Like a martyr lashed to a stake. | |
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| And clove her spine-like ridges | |
| From isthmus shore to shore, | |
| And plied their mighty dredges | |
| As she let the landslides pour, | 20 |
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| She was harsh as a fickle mistress, | |
| And stern as an angered god, | |
| Then soft as the lap of a mother, | |
| As they conquered her great untrod. | |
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| From the circles around the Arctics | 25 |
| To Cancer and Capricorn, | |
| From the yellow streams of China | |
| To the base of the Matterhorn; | |
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| They have vanquished their untamed Mother; | |
| Though she thunders volcanic guns, | 30 |
| They force her to do their bidding, | |
Like masterful rebel sons.
Contemporary Verse | |
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