I stood, in thought, on Shinar's plain,

And saw that tower arise,

Whose height so vast, by builders vain,

Was meant to reach the skies:

It seem’d to stand before my sight,

Like phantoms which, in dreams of night,

We see with wond’ring eyes;

Distrusted, when they meet our view,

But gazed at, till we think them true.

I will not say that thought could cheat

My judgment so to deem

Of this ideal counterfeit;

Nor was it slumber's dream:

But in imagination's hour

The past , by her creative power,

May like the present seem;

And make us for the time compeers

Of them who lived in distant years.

And thus I thought before me stood

That tower of early fame,

Rear’d by the erring multitude

To make themselves a name:

Of lofty height, and ample base,

Though boasting little finished grace,

Seem’d its gigantic frame;

Surpassing, in its wondrous size,

All Egypt's later prodigies.

It rose, until its massy form

Far length’ning shadows cast;

Bidding defiance to the storm,

And smiling at the blast:

And even to Euphrates’ wave

Its lofty summit lustre gave,

The loveliest, and the last

Which, borrow’d from the sun's last gleam,

It shed upon that distant stream.

And SHINAR's plain was throng’d around

With earth's primeval race,

Who all alike intent were found,

Each lab’ring in his place,

To rear the tower, whose deathless fame

Should be their own enduring name,

Their city's chiefest grace:

For to one common home they clung,

And spoke but in one common tongue.

But GOD came down to see the tower,

And city they had made;

And by his overwhelming power

Their policy gainsay’d;

Giving to each a tongue unknown,

Their plans and counsels were o’erthrown,

His sovereignty display’d;

And what they eagerly had sought

To shun, their own presumption wrought.

O then, in that discordant crowd,

What wild confusion rose!

As each, in accents fierce and loud,

Attempted to disclose

The aid he proffer’d, help he sought;

Till they who were together brought

As friends, were turn’d to foes;