Flood, or Song of (Modern) Experience

*This poem is modelled after "Tyger, Tyger" by William Blake, and was written in response to the flooding in my home state of Colorado. Still over 600 people missing, and the flood waters are just starting to recede.

Flood

Water, Water rushing by,

In the city in the night,

What immortal hand or face

Did shape the wayward river’s face?

In what distant deeps or skies

Rush the waters deep and high?

From what banks did lead them stray?

What muddy earth was led away?

And what shoulder and what art

Could twist the mighty river’s heart?

And when thy heart ran farther still,

What dread hand and what dread skill?

What the storm? What the clouds?

What fury, the storm aroused?

What the waters did enrage

With immortal weather stage?

When the sky poured down its wrath,

And soaked the Earth and every path,

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he whose rainbows gleam cause thee?

Water, water rushing by

In the city in the night,

What immortal hand or face

Dare shape the wayward river’s pace?