Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

The Builder

Willard Wattles

SMOOTHING a cypress beam

With a scarred hand

I saw a carpenter

In a far land.

Down past the flat roofs

Poured the white sun;

But still he bent his back,

The patient one.

And I paused surprised

In that queer place

To find an old man

With a haunting face.

“Who art thou, carpenter

Of the bowed head;

And what buildest thou?”

“Heaven,” he said.