Goethals, The Prophet Engineer by Percy MacKaye

Goethals, The Prophet Engineer

by Percy MacKaye

A man went down to Panama

Where many a man had died

To slit the sliding mountains

And lift the eternal tide:

A man stood up in Panama,

And the mountains stood aside.

For a poet wrought in Panama

With a continent for his theme,

And he wrote with flood and fire

To forge a planet s dream,

And the derricks rang his dithyrambs

And his stanzas roared in steam.

Where old Balboa bent his gaze

He leads the liners through.

And the Horn that tossed Magellan

Bellows a far halloo,

For where the navies never sailed

Steamed Goethals and his crew.

So nevermore the tropic routes

Need poleward warp and veer,

But on through the Gates of Goethals

The steady keels shall steer,

Where the tribes of man are led toward peace

By the prophet-engineer.