Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Telegraphy, Technology, Electricity, Instruments, Progress, Internationalism, Commerce, War, Morality, Religion

    Begins by reflecting on 'Another tie', or 'Another path of lightning', laid between the Old and New Worlds, and turns to the rapid progress of the cable ship and of the world which so 'spins down the stream of thought and act, / That what was last year's marvel is this year's familiar fact'. Stresses what a 'small thing' it now seems to communicate across the Atlantic 'By the twinkle of a lamp [a possible reference to the mirror galvanometer used in telegraphic signalling], and the quiver of a wire'. Wonders whether the telegraph will aid or hinder 'good' and international harmony, but is confident that the invention will do more than help commerce, and that it has 'conquered' time and space. Concludes by noting that the destinies of men are ruled by a 'mysterious power', and that submarine cables conceal 'The secrets of the future, and the ends of good and ill'.