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Gloria Mundi
(PARIS, 1900)
MAGICIAN hands through long, laborious nights Have made these princely palaces to loom Whiter than are the city's legion lights,
On threads unseen stretched out across the gloom. Reared in an hour, for one brief hour to reign,
The proud pavilions watchful hold in fee A world's achievements, where the stately Seine Slides slowly past her bridges to the sea.
Mute and memorial, as on either bank
She sees the marvel worked before her eyes, Beholds as in a vision, rank on rank,
Pagoda, dome, and campanile rise, Like to a mother scowling on a child
Sceptred and crowned to make a queen of May, The Seine, that sorrowed not for France defiled,
Past France triumphant frowning goes her way.
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