Page:A protest against the extension of railways in the Lake District - Somervell (1876).djvu/5

 [[Poems (EBBrowning-1844)/Volume 1/Lady Geraldine's Courtship#ProtestRailwayDedication|The age culls simples, With a broad clown's back turned broadly to the glory of the stars. We are gods by our own reck'ning, and may well shut up the temples, And wield on, amid the incense-steam, the thunder of our cars.

For we throw out acclamations of self-thanking, self-admiring, With, at every mile run faster,—'O the wondrous, wondrous age!' Little thinking if we work our Souls as nobly as our iron, Or if angels will commend us at the goal of pilgrimage.]] Elizabeth Barrett Browning.