Modernism – Dean H. C. Robbins

They reared the tower of their mirthless pride

Where the smooth sands stretch level

toward the sea,

And having rid the world of mystery

Complacent, watched the ebbing of the tide.

 

But the moon laughed, and bade the tide obey;

And the wind waked from sleep and put on

strength:

And where the fallen tower boasts its length

A child seeks blocks to help him in his play.

 

By Howard Chandler Robbins, former Dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine,  New York  in Sursum Corda, Morehouse Publ. Co., 1927 (MCMXXVII),  page 34