Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PIONEERS OF INDUSTRY, by CLARENCE ALVA POWELL


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PIONEERS OF INDUSTRY, by                    
First Line: Steve is dead. He is through with sweating now
Last Line: Unsung, for they were never conquerors!
Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Washington Monument; Work; Workers


I

Steve is dead. He is through with sweating now,
And through with furnaces. His back will bend
No more with sudden pain. He is dead. His brow
Is smoothed of care. Another Steve will spend
His life before the flames; and he, somehow,
Will die. And others yet will pause and tend
The fires . . . and die! They will challenge fate and bow
To cold defeat -- like Steve, here -- in the end.

But they will come -- of grim necessity,
Perhaps -- and toil until their blood is spilled
Into the great inferno of the flames.
The Steves are pioneers of Industry.
They dig the ore and melt the iron and build
The monuments that never bear their names.

II

This marble shaft was built for Washington.
It signifies the freedom of our land,
The will to honor yet his first command.
The name and dates of birth and death thereon
Are his. They glitter in the setting sun
Like iron flecked with blood, or like a hand
In fury clenched too great to understand;
Or battles ever raging never won!

This monument seems NOT for Washington.
The quarry-men, who blasted out the stone,
The polishers, engravers, laborers
Whose strength and patience saw the work was done,
Are represented here -- strong men unknown,
Unsung, for they were never conquerors!





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