Men said at vespers: 'All is well!' <br />In one wild night the city fell; <br />Fell shrines of prayer and marts of gain <br />Before the fiery hurricane. <br /> <br />On threescore spires had sunset shone, <br />Where ghastly sunrise looked on none. <br />Men clasped each other's hands, and said <br />'The City of the West is dead!' <br /> <br />Brave hearts who fought, in slow retreat, <br />The fiends of fire from street to street, <br />Turned, powerless, to the blinding glare, <br />The dumb defiance of despair. <br /> <br />A sudden impulse thrilled each wire <br />That signalled round that sea of fire; <br />Swift words of cheer, warm heart-throbs came; <br />In tears of pity died the flame! <br /> <br />From East, from West, from South and North, <br />The messages of hope shot forth, <br />And, underneath the severing wave, <br />The world, full-handed, reached to save. <br /> <br />Fair seemed the old; but fairer still <br />The new, the dreary void shall fill <br />With dearer homes than those o'erthrown, <br />For love shall lay each corner-stone. <br /> <br />Rise, stricken city! from thee throw <br />The ashen sackcloth of thy woe; <br />And build, as to Amphion's strain, <br />To songs of cheer thy walls again! <br /> <br />How shrivelled in thy hot distress <br />The primal sin of selfishness! <br />How instant rose, to take thy part, <br />The angel in the human heart! <br /> <br />Ah! not in vain the flames that tossed <br />Above thy dreadful holocaust; <br />The Christ again has preached through thee <br />The Gospel of Humanity! <br /> <br />Then lift once more thy towers on high, <br />And fret with spires the western sky, <br />To tell that God is yet with us, <br />And love is still miraculous!<br /><br />John Greenleaf Whittier<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/chicago-9/
