Between the 1870s to the early 1900s, American society became a vast sea of sea change in matters of all forms of transformation going on at once.

End of the Frontier
by Michael Doyle

The travesty of the Civil War was not just a time shun
But also  the dividing line into a time of '-tions'
As in our urbanization as we grew into modernization
In this time of industrialization and professionalization

At the end of this devastating war, came a Grand Review
As national power paraded across D.C.'s great avenue
This steady flow dignified our glorious unification
With power come to its day for our federalized nation

Railroads drove big business as commerce became industry
All of the infrastructure grown to disburse all commodities
Family businesses gave way to the modern business corporation
As all of this was put on the wheeled modes of transportation

Rockefeller's oil spilled in barrels across this nation
As America and the world renewed in growing dedication
JP Morgan and other financiers eroded with their bigness
The prior republican values disapproving of big business

Cities grew in their moneyed power over true virtue
Becoming the fixture of America's varying and many hues
As cities grew, populations exploded exponentially
Towns became cities stretched across and spread nationally

With the growth of population flowed mass immigration
The demand for labor changed the face of our nation
Expanding pluralism became a struggle of assimilation
Bringing with it many a variation in new fascinations

Less a melting pot than a salad of the foreign born
All of this needing cohesion for the new day's morn
Both grand in gains and huge in losses, drove our nation
As we absorbed and settled during this transformation

And yet there remained the spirt of the West
Where the spirit of the frontier was known best
In the 1890s, the Census Bureau closed the frontier
Of which Frederick Turner detailed making it clear

Presenting his significant work at the World Columbian Exposition
Forever linking Columbus with the heroic need for exploration
The West was where the worse perils of our civilization
Were mooted by the caress of nature's revitalization

The best of America was the boldness of our exploration
The base meaning of America now needed transformation
The time had come for modernization and development
This blessing and curse were both Providentially sent

(c) March 31, 2020  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved