A man went down to Panama <br />Where many a man had died <br />To slit the sliding mountains <br />And lift the eternal tide: <br />A man stood up in Panama, <br />And the mountains stood aside. <br /> <br />For a poet wrought in Panama <br />With a continent for his theme, <br />And he wrote with flood and fire <br />To forge a planet s dream, <br />And the derricks rang his dithyrambs <br />And his stanzas roared in steam. <br /> <br />Where old Balboa bent his gaze <br />He leads the liners through. <br />And the Horn that tossed Magellan <br />Bellows a far halloo, <br />For where the navies never sailed <br />Steamed Goethals and his crew. <br /> <br />So nevermore the tropic routes <br />Need poleward warp and veer, <br />But on through the Gates of Goethals <br />The steady keels shall steer, <br />Where the tribes of man are led toward peace <br />By the prophet-engineer.<br /><br />Percy MacKaye<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/goethals-the-prophet-engineer/
