Newcastle Upon Tyne, England

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND Half-Scot, half-English and ill at ease with the past, Newcastle is sooty black from its coaly drama, And the breathless town was always in a hurry to grow, Narrowly avoiding destruction of its past or leaping over it. Up on the plateau, industrial power-engine city: Its earlier Norman Castle and Black Gate narrowly missed By the frenetic hammers of eager Victorian builders. Elegantly-proportioned Grainger Street and Central Rail Station Pause unwillingly to admit the Scottish-style lantern-spired Sandstone cathedral with its delicate shade of sooty industrial black. Down at the riverside - an earlier town of shipyards and arms factories, Quayside warehouses with watertight flood-doors, Its precipitous narrow old port-streets carved into the gorge walls And pierced by cold winds from the North Sea, Is leaped over by a platoon of high-level metal bridges. Across the Tyne, inelegant, they grab the opposite bank and bind the city to England. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… NOTE: 1 Newcastle is situated on the north ( = Scottish ) side of the River Tyne. The town was an epicenter of the Industrial Revolution, with coal, steel, chemical, engineering, and shipbuilding industries, and was also a major seaport. 2 Norman Castle, Black Gate are remnants of a pre-medieval past. 3 Grainger Street, Central Rail Station are 19th century redeveloped areas. 4 Cathedral (St. Nicholas) dates from 14th century.