by drain-pipe, gasometers, artificial fertilizers,
Smiling and pleas'd with palpable intent to stay,
She's here, install'd amid the kitchen ware!

But hold — don't I forget my manners?
To introduce the stranger, (what else indeed do I live to
     chant for?) to thee Columbia;
In liberty's name welcome immortal! clasp hands,
And ever henceforth sisters dear be both.

Fear not O Muse! truly new ways and days receive,
     surround you,
I candidly confess a queer, queer race, of novel fashion,
And yet the same old human race, the same within, without,
Faces and hearts the same, feelings the same, yearnings the
     same,
The same old love, beauty and use the same.

We do not blame thee elder World, nor really separate
     ourselves from thee,
(Would the son separate himself from the father?)
Looking back on thee, seeing thee to thy duties, grandeurs,
     through past ages bending, building,
We build to ours to-day.

Mightier than Egypt's tombs,
Fairer than Grecia's, Roma's temples,
Prouder then Milan's statued, spired, cathedral,
More picturesque than Rhenish castle-keeps,
We plan even now to raise, beyond them all,
Thy great cathedral sacred industry, no tomb,
A keep for life for practical invention.

As in a waking vision,
E'en while I chant I see it rise, I scan and prophesy outside
     and in,
Its manifold ensemble.

Around a palace, loftier, fairer, ampler than any yet,
Earth's modern wonder, history's seven outstripping,
High rising tier on tier with glass and iron façades,
Gladdening the sun and sky, enhued in cheerfulest hues,

Bronze, lilac, robin's-egg, marine and crimson,
Over whose golden roof shall flaunt, beneath thy banner
     Freedom,
The banners of the States and flags of every land,
A brood of lofty, fair, but lesser palaces shall cluster.

Somewhere within their walls shall all that forwards perfect
     human life be started,
Tried, taught, advanced, visibly exhibited.

Not only all the world of works, trade, products,
But all the workmen of the world here to be represented.

Here shall you trace in flowing operation,
In every state of practical, busy movement, the rills of
     civilization,
Materials here under your eye shall change their shape as
     if by magic,
The cotton shall be pick'd almost in the very field,
Shall be dried, clean'd, ginn'd, baled, spun into thread
     and cloth before you,
You shall see hands at work at all the old processes and
     all the new ones,
You shall see the various grains and how flour is made and
     then bread baked by the bakers,
You shall see the crude ores of California and Nevada passing
     on and on till they become bullion,
You shall watch how the printer sets type, and learn what a
     composing-stick is,
You shall mark in amazement the Hoe press whirling its cylinders,
     shedding the printed leaves steady and fast,
The photograph, model, watch, pin, nail, shall be created
     before you.

In large calm halls, a stately museum shall teach you the
     infinite lessons of minerals,
In another, woods, plants, vegetation shall be illustrated
     — in another animals, animal life and development.

One stately house shall be the music house,
Others for other arts — learning, the sciences, shall
     all be here,

None shall be slighted, none but shall here be honor'd,
     help'd, exampled.