Joy's City hath high battlements of gold; <br />Joy's City hath her streets of gem-wrought flow'rs; <br />She hath her palaces high reared and bold, <br />And tender shades of perfumed lily bowers; <br />But ever day by day, and ever night by night, <br />An Angel measures still our City of Delight. <br /> <br />He hath a rule of gold, and never stays, <br />But ceaseless round the burnish'd ramparts glides; <br />He measures minutes of her joyous days, <br />Her walls, her trees, the music of her tides; <br />The roundness of her buds--Joy's own fair city lies, <br />Known to its heart-core by his stern and thoughtful eyes. <br /> <br />Above the sounds of timbrel and of song, <br />Of greeting friends, of lovers 'mid the flowers, <br />The Angel's voice arises clear and strong: <br />'O City, by so many leagues thy bow'rs <br />Stretch o'er the plains, and in the fair high-lifted blue <br />So many cubits rise thy tow'rs beyond the view.' <br /> <br />Why dost thou, Angel, measure Joy's fair walls? <br />Unceasing gliding by their burnish'd stones; <br />Go, rather measure Sorrow's gloomy halls; <br />Her cypress bow'rs, her charnel-house of bones; <br />Her groans, her tears, the rue in her jet chalices; <br />But leave unmeasured more, Joy's fairy palaces. <br /> <br />The Angel spake: 'Joy hath her limits set, <br />But Sorrow hath no bounds--Joy is a guest <br />Perchance may enter; but no heart puls'd yet, <br />Where Sorrow did not lay her down to rest; <br />She hath no city by so many leagues confin'd, <br />I cannot measure bounds where there are none to find.'<br /><br />Isabella Valancy Crawford<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/joy-s-city/
