_The New York Skyscraper_

The Woolworth Building

Enormously it lifts Its tower against the splendor of the west; Like some wild dream that drifts Before the mind, and at the will's behest,-- Enchantment-based, gigantic steel and stone,-- Is given permanence; A concrete fact, Complete, alone, Glorious, immense, Such as no nation here on Earth has known: Epitomizing all That is American, that stands for youth, And strength and truth; That's individual, And beautiful and free,-- Resistless strength and tireless energy.

Even as a cataract, Its superb fact Suggests vast forces Nature builds with--Joy, And Power and Thought, She to her aid has brought For eons past, will bring for eons yet to be, Shaping the world to her desire: the three Her counsellors constantly, Her architects, through whom her dreams come true,-- Her workmen, bringing forth, With toil that shall not cease, Mountains and plains and seas, That make the Earth The glory that it is: And, one with these, Such works of man as this, This building, towering into the blue, A beacon, round which like an ocean wide, Circles and flows the restless human tide.