‘When we spoke to her of the New Jerusalem, she said she would rather
go to a country place in Heaven.’
_Letters from the Black Country_.
I’M weary of towns, it seems a’most a pity
We didn’t stop down i’ the country and clem,
And you say that I’m bound for another city,
For the streets o’ the New Jerusalem.
And the streets are never like Sheffield, here,
Nor the smoke don’t cling like a smut to _them_;
But the water o’ life flows cool and clear
Through the streets o’ the New Jerusalem.
And the houses, you say, are of jasper cut,
And the gates are gaudy wi’ gold and gem;
But there’s times I could wish as the gates was shut—
The gates o’ the New Jerusalem.
For I come from a country that’s over-built
Wi’ streets that stifle, and walls that hem,
And the gorse on a common’s worth all the gilt
And the gold of your New Jerusalem.
And I hope that they’ll bring me, in Paradise,
To green lanes leafy wi’ bough and stem—
To a country place in the land o’ the skies,
And not to the New Jerusalem.