AH, London! London! our delight, <br />Great flower that opens but at night, <br />Great City of the midnight sun, <br />Whose day begins when day is done. <br /> <br />Lamp after lamp against the sky <br />Opens a sudden beaming eye, <br />Leaping alight on either hand, <br />The iron lilies of the Strand. <br /> <br />Like dragonflies, the hansoms hover, <br />With jeweled eyes, to catch the lover; <br />The streets are full of lights and loves, <br />Soft gowns, and flutter of soiled doves. <br /> <br />The human moths about the light <br />Dash and cling close in dazed delight, <br />And burn and laugh, the world and wife, <br />For this is London, this is life! <br /> <br />Upon thy petals butterflies, <br />But at thy root, some say, there lies, <br />A world of weeping trodden things, <br />Poor worms that have not eyes or wings. <br /> <br />From out corruption of their woe <br />Springs this bright flower that charms us so, <br />Men die and rot deep out of sight <br />To keep this jungle-flower bright. <br /> <br />Paris and London, World-Flowers twain <br />Wherewith the World-Tree blooms again, <br />Since Time hath gathered Babylon, <br />And withered Rome still withers on. <br /> <br />Sidon and Tyre were such as ye, <br />How bright they shone upon the tree! <br />But Time hath gathered, both are gone, <br />And no man sails to Babylon.<br /><br />Richard Le Gallienne<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-ballad-of-london/
