Poems (Scudder)/Beauty Triumphant

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BEAUTY TRIUMPHANT
Across the meadows swung the train  By black roofed sheds and earth-cuts raw, And I half choked with dust and steam  Peered through the blurring glass and saw
How in great waves of grey and brown  The smoke and salty fog were rolled. Heavily plunged the dying sun  And blew a wrathful spume of gold.
The monster signs that boast of soap,  Chocolate, thread were hid each one; Between slant grass, the scattered pools  Vivid as unset garnets shone.
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And where the rolling clouds would glow  Vermeil or crimson angrily Rose in a cluster straight and tall  The chimneys of a factory.
They might be stamens grouped within  The deep heart of that swarthy rose; Or shafts of rough pearl rising from  Some dim haunt that the sea-king knows.
And watching them I thought in spite  Of dirt and ugliness and sin Beauty will never vanquished be— Triumphant still she enters in.

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