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NEW YORK
A NOCTURNE
DOWN-GAZING, I behold,
Miraculous by night,
A city all of gold.
Here, there, and everywhere,
In myriad fashion fair,
A mystery untold
Of Light!
Not royal Babylon,
Nor Tyre, nor Rome the great—
In the all-powerful state
Her wisdom and her armèd legions won—
Was so illuminate
As this strange world which, awed, I look upon.
With it compared, the ancient glories fail,
And, in the glow it doth irradiate,
The planets of the firmament grow pale!
Night, birth-fellow to Chaos, never wore
A robe so gemmed before.
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