Babylon by Alfred George-Alfred George Stephens, often known simply as A G Stephens, was an Australian poet and literary critic who made regular contributions to the Sydney-based magazine The Bulletin. He set out to bolster and encourage the concept of Australian literature in its own right, even though many writers had strong European influences.
Babylon by Alfred George Stephens
Babylon has fallen! Aye; but Babylon endures
Wherever human wisdom shines or human folly lures;
Where lovers lingering walk beside, and happy children play,
Is Babylon! Babylon! for ever and for aye.
The plan is rudely fashioned, the dream is unfulfilled,
Yet all is in the archetype if but a builder willed;
And Babylon is calling us, the microcosm of men,
To range her walls in harmony and lift her spires again;
The sternest walls, the proudest spires, that ever sun shone on,
Halting a space his burning race to gaze on Babylon.
Babylon has fallen! Aye; but Babylon shall stand:
The mantle of her majesty is over sea and land.
Hers is the name of challenge flung, a watchword in the fight
To grapple grim eternities and gain the old delight;
And in the word the dream is hid, and in the dream the deed,
And in the deed the mastery for those who dare to lead.
Surely her day shall come again, surely her breed be born
To urge the hope of humankind and scale the peaks of morn —
To fight as they who fought till death their bloody field upon,
And kept the gate against the Fate frowning on Babylon.
Babylon
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