{ "id": "joel-barlow/book-i", "title": "Book I", "ordinal": null, "subtitle": null, "poet": "Joel Barlow", "poet_slug": "joel-barlow", "language": "en", "book": "The Columbiad", "book_slug": "the-columbiad", "book_kind": "volume", "sequence": 1, "container": null, "epigraph": null, "first_published": { "year": 1809, "venue": "The Columbiad (1809)", "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.", "uncertain": false, "sources": [ "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8683" ] }, "source": { "kind": "standard-ebooks", "repo": "standardebooks/joel-barlow_the-columbiad", "file": "book-1.xhtml", "upstream": [ "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8683", "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009722549" ], "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)" }, "verification": { "level": "structural-only", "last_checked": "2026-08-20" }, "stats": { "n_lines": 806, "n_stanzas": 61, "n_parts": 0, "longest_line_chars": 59, "max_indent": 0 }, "site_ready": true, "parts": [], "stanzas": [ [ { "text": "I sing the Mariner who first unfurl’d", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An eastern banner o’er the western world,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And taught mankind where future empires lay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In these fair confines of descending day;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who sway’d a moment, with vicarious power,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Iberia’s sceptre on the new found shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then saw the paths his virtuous steps had trod", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pursued by avarice and defiled with blood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The tribes he foster’d with paternal toil", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Snatcht from his hand, and slaughter’d for their spoil.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Slaves, kings, adventurers, envious of his name,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Enjoy’d his labours and purloin’d his fame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And gave the Viceroy, from his high seat hurl’d,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Chains for a crown, a prison for a world.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Long overwhelm’d in woes, and sickening there,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He met the slow still march of black despair,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sought the last refuge from his hopeless doom,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wisht from thankless men a peaceful tomb:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till vision’d ages, opening on his eyes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cheer’d his sad soul, and bade new nations rise;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He saw the Atlantic heaven with light o’ercast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Freedom crown his glorious work at last.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Almighty Freedom! give my venturous song", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The force, the charm that to thy voice belong;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "’Tis thine to shape my course, to light my way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To nerve my country with the patriot lay,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To teach all men where all their interest lies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How rulers may be just and nations wise:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Strong in thy strength I bend no suppliant knee,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Invoke no miracle, no Muse but thee.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Night held on old Castile her silent reign,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her half orb’d moon declining to the main;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er Valladolid’s regal turrets hazed", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The drizzly fogs from dull Pisuerga raised;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose hovering sheets, along the welkin driven,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thinn’d the pale stars, and shut the eye from heaven.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cold-hearted Ferdinand his pillow prest,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor dream’d of those his mandates robb’d of rest,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of him who gemm’d his crown, who stretcht his reign", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To realms that weigh’d the tenfold poise of Spain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who now beneath his tower indungeon’d fares,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sweats the chill sod and breathes inclement airs.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "His feverish pulse, slow laboring through his frame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Feeds with scant force its fast expiring flame;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A far dim watch-lamp’s thrice reflected beam", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Throws through his grate a mist-encumber’d gleam,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Paints the dun vapors that the cell invade,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fills with spectred forms the midnight shade;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When from a visionary short repose,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That nursed new cares and temper’d keener woes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Columbus woke, and to the walls addrest,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The deep felt sorrows bursting from his breast.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Here lies the purchase, here the wretched spoil", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of painful years and persevering toil.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For these damp caves, this hideous haunt of pain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I traced new regions o’er the chartless main,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tamed all the dangers of untraversed waves,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hung o’er their clefts, and topt their surging graves.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Saw traitorous seas o’er coral ridges sweep,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Red thunders rock the pole and scorch the deep,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Death rear his front in every varying form,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gape from the shoals and ride the roaring storm.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My struggling bark her seamy planks disjoin,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rake the rude rock and drink the copious brine.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till the tired elements are lull’d at last,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And milder suns allay the billowing blast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lead on the trade winds with unvarying force,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And long and landless curve our constant course.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Our homeward heaven recoils; each night forlorn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Calls up new stars, and backward rolls the morn;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The boreal vault descends with Europe’s shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bright Callisto shuns the wave no more;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Dragon dips his fiery-foaming jole,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The affrighted magnet flies the faithless pole;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nature portends a general change of laws,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My daring deeds are deemed the guilty cause;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The desperate crew, to insurrection driven,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Devote their captain to the wrath of heaven,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Resolve at once to end the audacious strife,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And buy their safety with his forfeit life.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "In that sad hour, this feeble frame to save,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(Unblest reprieve) and rob the gaping wave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The morn broke forth, these tearful orbs descried", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The golden banks that bound the western tide.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With full success I calm’d the clamorous race,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bade heaven’s blue arch a second earth embrace;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And gave the astonisht age that bounteous shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their wealth to nations, and to kings their power.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Land of delights! ah, dear delusive coast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To these fond aged eyes forever lost!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No more thy flowery vales I travel o’er,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For me thy mountains rear the head no more;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For me thy rocks no sparkling gems unfold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor streams luxuriant wear their paths in gold;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From realms of promised peace forever borne,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I hail mute anguish, and in secret mourn.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But dangers past, a world explored in vain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And foes triumphant show but half my pain.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dissembling friends, each early joy who gave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fired my youth the storms of fate to brave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swarm’d in the sunshine of my happier days,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pursued the fortune and partook the praise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now pass my cell with smiles of sour disdain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Insult my woes and triumph in my pain.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "One gentle guardian once could shield the brave;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But now that guardian slumbers in the grave.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hear from above, thou dear departed shade!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As then my hopes, so now my sorrows aid,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Burst my full heart, afford that last relief,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Breathe back my sighs and reinspire my grief;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Still in my sight thy royal form appears,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Reproves my silence and demands my tears.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Even on that hour no more I joy to dwell,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When thy protection bade the canvas swell,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When kings and churchmen found their factions vain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When superstition shrunk beneath her chain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sun’s glad beam led on the circling way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And isles rose beauteous in Atlantic day.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For on those silvery shores, that new domain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What crowds of tyrants fix their murderous reign!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her infant realm indignant Freedom flies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Truth leaves the world and Isabella dies.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Ah, lend thy friendly shroud to veil my sight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That these pain’d eyes may dread no more the light;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "These welcome shades shall close my instant doom,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And this drear mansion moulder to a tomb.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Thus mourn’d the hapless man: a thundering sound", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Roll’d through the shuddering walls and shook the ground;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er all the dungeon, where black arches bend,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The roofs unfold and streams of light descend;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The growing splendor fills the astonisht room,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And gales ethereal breathe a glad perfume.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Robed in the radiance, moves a form serene,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of human structure but of heavenly mien;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Near to the prisoner’s couch he takes his stand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And waves, in sign of peace, his holy hand.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tall rose his stature, youth’s endearing grace", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Adorn’d his limbs and brighten’d in his face;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Loose o’er his locks the star of evening hung,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sounds melodious moved his cheerful tongue:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Rise, trembling chief, to scenes of rapture rise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This voice awaits thee from the western skies;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Indulge no longer that desponding strain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor count thy toils, nor deem thy virtues vain.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thou seest in me the guardian Power who keeps", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The new found world that skirts Atlantic deeps;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hesper my name, my seat the brightest throne", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In night’s whole heaven, my sire the living sun.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My brother Atlas, from his birthright boast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Claims the wild wave, but mine the solid coast.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This hand, which form’d, and in the tides of time", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Laves and improves the meliorating clime,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Which taught thy prow to cleave the trackless way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And hail’d thee first in occidental day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To all thy worth shall vindicate thy claim,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And raise up nations to revere thy name.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "In this dark age though blinded faction sways,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wealth and conquest gain the palm of praise;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Awed into slaves while groveling millions groan,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And blood-stain’d steps lead upward to a throne;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far other wreaths thy virtuous temples twine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far nobler triumphs crown a life like thine;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thine be the joys that minds immortal grace,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As thine the deeds that bless a kindred race.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now raise thy sorrow’d soul to views more bright,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The vision’d ages rushing on thy sight;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Worlds beyond worlds shall bring to light their stores,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Time, nature, science blend their utmost powers,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To show, concentred in one blaze of fame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The ungather’d glories that await thy name.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "As that great seer, whose animating rod", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Taught Jacob’s sons their wonder-working God,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Led far through dreary wastes the murmuring band,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And reacht the confines of their promised land,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forbid to enter, but from Pisgah’s height,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On fruitful Canaan feasted long his sight;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "View’d unborn nations from his labors blest,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forgot his toils and sooth’d his soul to rest;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thus o’er thy subject wave shalt thou behold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far happier realms their future charms unfold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In nobler pomp another Pisgah rise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beneath whose foot thy new found Canaan lies;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There, rapt in vision, hail my favorite clime,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And taste the blessings of remotest time.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So Hesper spoke; Columbus raised his head;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His chains dropt off; the cave, the castle fled.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Forth walkt the Pair; when steep before them stood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A radiant track, a heaven-illumined road,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That through disparting shades arose on high,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Reacht o’er the hills and lengthen’d up the sky,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Show’d a clear summit, rich with rising flowers,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That breathe their odors through celestial bowers.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er the proud Pyrenees it looks sublime,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Subjects the Alps and levels Europe’s clime;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spain, lessening to a chart, beneath it swims,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And shrouds her dungeons in the void she dims.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Led by the Power, the Hero gain’d the height,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "New strength and brilliance flusht his mortal sight;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When calm before them flow’d the western main,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far stretcht, immense, a sky-encircled plain.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No sail, no isle, no cloud invests the bound,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor billowy surge disturbs the vast profound;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till, deep in distant heavens, the sun’s blue ray", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Topt unknown cliffs and call’d them up to day;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Slow glimmering into sight wide regions drew,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And rose and brighten’d on the expanding view;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fair sweep the waves, the lessening ocean smiles,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In misty radiance loom a thousand isles;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Near and more near the long drawn coasts arise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bays stretch their arms and mountains lift the skies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The lakes unfolding point the streams their way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Slopes, ridges, plains their spreading skirts display,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The vales branch forth, high walk approaching groves,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And all the majesty of nature moves.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "O’er the wild hemisphere his glances fly,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Its form distending as it still draws nigh,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As all its salient sides force far their sway,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Crowd back the ocean and indent the day.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He saw, through central zones, the winding shore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spread the deep gulf his sail had traced before,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Darien isthmus check the raging tide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Join distant lands and neighboring seas divide;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On either hand the shores unbounded bend,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Push wide their waves, to each dim pole ascend;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The two twin continents diverging rise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Broad as the main and lengthen’d with the skies.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Long gazed the Mariner; when thus the Guide:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here spreads the world thy daring sail descried,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hesperia call’d, from my anterior claim;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But now Columbia, from thy patriarch name.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So from Phoenicia’s peopled strand of yore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Europa sail’d and sought an unknown shore;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There stampt her sacred name; and thence her race,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hale, venturous, bold from Jove’s divine embrace,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ranged o’er the world, predestined to bestride", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Earth’s elder continents and each far tide.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Ages unborn shall bless the happier day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That saw thy streamer shape the guideless way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their bravest heroes trace the path you led", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sires of nations through the regions spread.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behold yon isles, where first thy flag unfurl’d", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In bloodless triumph o’er the younger world;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As, awed to silence, savage bands gave place,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And hail’d with joy the sun-descended race.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Retrace the banks yon rushing waters lave;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There Orinoco checks great ocean’s wave;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thine is the stream; it cleaves the well known coast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Paria’s walks thy former footsteps boast.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But these no more thy wide discoveries bound,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Superior prospects lead their swelling round,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nature’s remotest scenes before thee roll,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And years and empires open on thy soul.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "With yon bold eminence commence thy view;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "See Quito’s plains o’erlook their proud Peru,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On whose huge base, like islands built in heaven,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A vast protuberance forms the gates of even.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Approaching slow they still expand their bounds,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The yielding concave bends sublimer rounds;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose wearied stars, high curving to the west,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pause on the summits for a moment’s rest;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Recumbent there they renovate their force", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And roll rejoicing on their downward course.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Another mass invades yon southern skies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hills form on hills and peaks o’er peaks arise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ascending, whitening, rocks and crags are lost,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’erhung with headcliffs of eternal frost!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Broad fields of ice give back the morning ray,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like walls of suns or heaven’s perennial day.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There folding storms on eastern pinions ride,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Veil the black void and wrap the mountains side,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rude thunders rake the crags, the rains descend", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the long lightnings o’er the valleys bend;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While blasts unburden’d sweep the cliffs of snow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The whirlwinds wheel above, the floods convolve below.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There molten rocks explosive rend their tomb;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Volcanos, laboring many a nation’s doom,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wild o’er the regions pour their floods of fire;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The shores heave backward and the seas retire.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There lava waits my late reluctant call,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To roar aloft and shake some guilty wall;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy pride, O Lima, swells the sulphurous wave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fanes and priests and idols crowd thy grave.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But cease, my son, these dread events to trace,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor learn the woes that here await thy race.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Anorth from that broad gulf, where verdant rise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Those gentler mounds that skirt the temperate skies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A happier hemisphere invites thy view;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The ancient world shall there embrace the new;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There Europe’s better sons their seat shall trace", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And change of government improve the race.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through all the midsky zones, to yon blue pole,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their green hills lengthen, their bright rivers roll;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And swelling westward, how their champaigns run!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How slope their uplands to the morning sun!", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So spoke the blest Immortal; when more near", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His northern wilds in all their breadth appear;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lands yet unknown and streams without a name", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rise into vision and demand their fame.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As when a saint first gains his bright abode,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Vaults o’er the spheres and views the works of God,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sees earth, his kindred orb, beneath him roll,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here glow the centre, and there point the pole;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er land and sea his eyes delighted rove,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And human thoughts his heavenly joys improve;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With equal scope the raptured Hero’s sight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ranged the low vale, or climb’d the cloudy height,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As, fixt in ardent look, his opening mind", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Explored the realms that here invite mankind.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "From sultry Mobile’s gulf-indented shore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To where Ontario hears his Lawrence roar,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stretcht o’er the broadbackt hills in long array,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The tenfold Alleganies meet the day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And show, far sloping from the plains and streams,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The forest azure streakt with orient beams.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "High moved the scene, Columbus gazed sublime,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thus in prospect hail’d the happy clime:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Blest be the race my guardian guide shall lead", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To these wide vales with every bounty spread.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What treasured stores the hills must here combine!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sleep still ye diamonds, and ye ores refine;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Exalt your heads ye oaks, ye pines ascend,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till future navies bid your branches bend;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then spread the canvass o’er the watery way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Explore new worlds and teach the old your sway.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He said, and northward cast his curious eyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On other cliffs of more exalted size.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Maine’s bleak breakers line the dangerous coast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And isles and shoals their latent horrors boast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "High lantern’d in his heaven the cloudless White", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gives the glad sailor an eternal light;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who far through troubled ocean greets the guide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And stems with steadier helm the stormful tide.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Nor could those heights unnoticed raise their head,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That swell sublime o’er Hudson’s shadowy bed;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though fiction ne’er has hung them in the skies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though White and Andes far superior rise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet hoary Kaatskill, where the storms divide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Would lift the heavens from Atlas’ laboring pride.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Land after land his passing notice claim,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And hills and mountains rise without a name,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All yet unsung, their mystic powers untold;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Celestials there no sacred senates hold;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No chain’d Prometheus feasts the vulture there,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No Cyclop forges through their summits glare,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To Phrygian Jove no victim smoke is curl’d,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor ark high landing quits a deluged world.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But were these masses piled on Asia’s shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Taurus would shrink, Hemodia boast no more,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Indus and Ganges scorn their humble sires,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And rising suns salute superior fires;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose watchful priest would meet, with matin blaze", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His earlier god, and sooner chaunt his praise.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For here great nature with a bolder hand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Roll’d the broad stream and heaved the lifted land;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And here, from finisht earth, triumphant trod", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The last ascending steps of her creating God.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He saw these mountains ope their watery stores,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Floods quit their caves and seek the distant shores;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wild through disparting plains their waves expand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And lave the banks where future towns must stand.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whirl’d from the monstrous Andes’ bursting sides,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Maragnon leads his congregating tides;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A thousand Alps for him dissolve their snow,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A thousand Rhones obedient bend below;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From different zones their ways converging wind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sweep beds of ore and leave their gold behind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In headlong cataracts indignant rave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rush to his banks and swell the swallowing wave.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ucayla, first of all his mighty sons,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From Cusco’s walls a wearied journey runs;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pastaza mines proud Pambamarca’s base,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And holds through sundering hills his lawless race;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Aloft, where Cotopaxi flames on high,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The roaring Napo quits his misty sky,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Down the long steeps in whitening torrents driven,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like Nile descending from his fabled heaven;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Mound after mound impetuous Tigris rends,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Curved Ista folds whole countries in his bends,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Vast Orinoco, summon’d forth to bring", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His far fetcht honors to the sateless king,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Drives on his own strong course to gain the shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But sends Catuba here with half his store;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like a broad Bosphorus here Negro guides", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The gather’d mass of fifty furious tides;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From his waste world, by nameless fountains fed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wild Purus wears his long and lonely bed;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er twelve degrees of earth Madera flows,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And robs the south of half its treasured snows;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Zingus, of equal length and heavier force,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rolls on, for months, the same continuous course", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To reach his master’s bank, that here constrains", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Topayo, charged with all Brazilla’s rains;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While inland seas and lakes unknown to fame", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Send their full tributes to the monarch stream;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who, swell’d with growing conquest, wheels abroad,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Drains every land, and gathers all his flood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then far from clime to clime majestic goes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Enlarging, widening, deepening as he flows;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like heaven’s broad milky way he shines alone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spreads o’er the globe its equatorial zone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Weighs the cleft continent and pushes wide", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Its balanced mountains from each crumbling side.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sire Ocean hears his proud Maragnon roar,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Moves up his bed and seeks in vain the shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then surging strong, with high and hoary tide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whelms back the Stream and checks his rolling pride.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Stream ungovernable foams with ire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Climbs, combs tempestuous, and attacks the Sire;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Earth feels the conflict; onward still it spreads,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her isles and uplands hide their woody heads;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "League after league from land to water change,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From realm to realm the seaborn monsters range;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Vast midland heights but pierce the liquid plain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Old Andes tremble for their proud domain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till the fresh Flood regains his forceful sway,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Drives back his father Ocean lasht with spray;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose ebbing waters lead the downward sweep,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And waves and trees and banks roll whirling to the deep.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Where suns less ardent cast their golden beams,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And minor Andes pour a waste of streams,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The marsh of Moxoe scoops the world, and fills", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "(From Bahia’s coast to Cochabamba’s hills)", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A thousand leagues of bog; he strives in vain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their floods to centre and their lakes retain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His gulfs o’ercharged their opening sides display,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And southern vales prolong the seaward way.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Columbus traced, with swift exploring eye,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The immense of waves that here exalted lie,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The realms that mound the unmeasured magazine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The far blue main, the climes that stretch between.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He saw Xaraya’s diamond banks unfold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Paraguay’s deep channel paved with gold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Saw proud Potosi lift his glittering head", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And pour down Plata through his tinctured bed.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rich with the spoils of many a distant mine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In his broad silver sea their floods combine;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wide over earth his annual freshet strays", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And her long months of gradual waste repays;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her thirsty regions wait his glad return", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And drink their future harvest from his urn.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Where the cold circles gird the southern sky,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Brave Magellan’s wild channel caught his eye;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The long cleft ridges wall’d the spreading way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That gleams far westward to an unknown sea.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Soon as the distant swell was seen to roll,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His ancient wishes reabsorb’d his soul;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Warm from his heaving heart a sudden sigh", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Burst through his lips; he turn’d his moisten’d eye", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thus besought his Angel: speak, my guide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where leads the pass? and what yon purple tide?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "How the dim waves in blending ether stray!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No lands behind them rise, no pinions on them play.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There spreads, belike, that other unsail’d main", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I sought so long, and sought, alas, in vain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To gird this watery globe, and bring to light", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Old India’s coast and regions wrapt in night.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Restore, celestial friend, my youthful morn,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Call back my years, and let my fame return;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Grant me to trace, beyond that pathless sea,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Some happier shore from lust of empire free,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To find in that far world a peaceful bower,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From envy safe and curst Ovando’s power.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Earth’s happiest realms let not their distance hide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor seas forever roll their useless tide.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For nations yet unborn, that wait thy time,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Demand their seats in that secluded clime;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ah, grant me still, their passage to prepare,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "One venturous bark, and be my life thy care.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So pray’d the Hero; Hesper mild replies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Divine compassion softening in his eyes:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though still to virtuous deeds thy mind aspires,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And these glad visions kindle new desires,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet hear with reverence what attends thy state,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor wish to pass the eternal bounds of fate.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Led by this sacred light thou soon shalt see", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That half mankind shall owe their home to thee;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Freedom’s first empire claim its promised birth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In these rich rounds of sea-encircled earth;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Let other years, by thine example prest,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Call forth their heroes to explore the rest.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Through different seas a twofold passage lies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To where sweet India scents a waste of skies.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The circling course, by Madagascar’s shores,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Round Afric’s cape, bold Gama now explores;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy well plann’d path these gleamy straits provide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor long shall rest the daring search untried.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This idle frith must open soon to fame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here a lost Lusitanian fix his name,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From that new main in furious waves be tost", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And fall neglected on the barbarous coast.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But lo the chief! bright Albion bids him rise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Speed in his pinions, ardor in his eyes;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hither, O Drake, display thy hastening sails,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Widen ye passes, and awake ye gales,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "March thou before him, courteous king of day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wind his long course, illumine his pathless way;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Earth’s distant shores, in circling bands unite,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lands, learn your fame, and oceans, roll in light", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Round all the watery globe his flag be hurl’d,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A new Columbus to the astonisht world.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "He spoke; and silent tow’rd the northern sky", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wide o’er the hills the Hero cast his eye,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Saw the long floods through devious channels pour", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wind their currents to the opening shore;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Interior seas and lonely lakes display", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their glittering glories to the beams of day.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy capes, Virginia, towering from the tide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Raise their blue banks and slope thy barriers wide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To future sails unfold an inland way", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And guard secure thy multifluvian bay,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That drains uncounted realms and here unites", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The liquid mass from Alleganian heights.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "York leads his wave, imbankt in flowery pride,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And nobler James falls winding by his side;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Back to the hills, through many a silent vale,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wild Rappahanock seems to lure the sail,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Patapsco’s bosom courts the hand to toil,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dull Susquehanna laves a length of soil;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But mightier far, in sealike azure spread,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Potomac sweeps his earth disparting bed.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Long dwelt his eye where these commingling pour’d,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their waves unkeel’d, their havens unexplored;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where frowning forests stretch the dusky wing,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And deadly damps forbid the flowers to spring;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No seasons clothed the field with cultured grain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No buoyant ship attempts the chartless main;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then, with impatient voice, My Seer, he cried,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When shall my children cross the lonely tide?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here, here my sons, the hand of culture bring,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here teach the lawn to smile, the grove to sing:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ye laboring floods, no longer vainly glide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ye harvests load them, and ye forests ride;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bear the deep burden from the joyous swain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And tell the world where peace and plenty reign.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Hesper, to this returning no reply,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Presents new visions to his roving eye.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He saw broad Delaware the shores divide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He saw majestic Hudson pour his tide;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy stream, my Hartford, through its misty robe,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Play’d in the sunbeams, belting far the globe;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No watery glades through richer valleys shine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor drinks the sea a lovelier wave than thine.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Mystic and Charles refresh their seaward isles,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And gay Piscateway pays his passing smiles;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swift Kenebec, high bursting from his lakes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shoots down the hillsides through the clouds he makes;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And hoarse resounding, gulfing wide the shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dread Lawrence labors with tremendous roar;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lawrence, great son of Ocean! lorn he lies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And braves the blasts of hyperborean skies.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where hoary winter holds his howling reign", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And April flings her timid showers in vain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Groans the choked Flood, in frozen fetters bound,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And isles of ice his angry front surround.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "As old Enceladus, in durance vile,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spreads his huge length beneath Sicilia’s isle,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her mass of mountains, on his body prest,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Close not his veins nor still his laboring breast;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His limbs convulse, his heart rebellious rolls,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Earth shakes responsive to her utmost poles,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While rumbling, bursting boils his ceaseless ire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Flames to mid heaven, and sets the skies on fire.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So the contristed Lawrence lays him low,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And hills of sleet and continents of snow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rise on his crystal breast; his heaving sides", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Crash with the weight, and pour their gushing tides.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Asouth, whence all his hundred branches bend,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Relenting airs with boreal blasts contend;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far in his vast extremes he swells and thaws,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And seas foam wide between his ice-bound jaws.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Indignant Frost, to hold his captive, plies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His hosted fiends that vex the polar skies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unlocks his magazines of nitric stores,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Azotic charms and muriatic powers;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hail, with its glassy globes, and brume congeal’d,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rime’s fleecy flakes, and storm that heaps the field", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Strike through the sullen Stream with numbing force,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Obstruct his sluices and impede his course.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In vain he strives; his might interior fails;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor spring’s approach, nor earth’s whole heat avails;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He calls his hoary sire; old Ocean roars", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Responsive echo through the Shetland shores.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He comes, the Father! from his bleak domains,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To break with liquid arms the sounding chains;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Clothed in white majesty, he leads from far", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His tides high foaming to the wintry war.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Billows on billows lift the maddening brine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And seas and clouds in battling conflict join,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’erturn the vast gulf glade with rending sweep,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And crash the crust that bridged the boiling deep;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till forced aloft, bright bounding through the air,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Moves the blear ice and sheds a dazzling glare;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The torn foundations on the surface ride,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And wrecks of winter load the downward tide.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The loosen’d ice isles o’er the main advance,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Toss on the surge and through the concave dance;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whirl’d high, conjoin’d, in crystal mountains driven,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Alp over Alp, they build a midway heaven;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose million mirrors mock the solar ray", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And give condensed the tenfold glare of day.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As tow’rd the south the mass enormous glides", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And brineless rivers furrow down its sides,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The thirsty sailor steals a glad supply,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sultry trade winds quaff the boreal sky.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But oft insidious death, with mist o’erstrown,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rides the dark ocean on this icy throne;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "When ships through vernal seas with light airs steer", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their midnight march and deem no danger near.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The steerman gaily helms his course along", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And laughs and listens to the watchman’s song,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who walks the deck, enjoys the murky fog,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sure of his chart, his magnet and his log,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their shipmates dreaming, while their slumbers last,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of joys to come, of toils and dangers past.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sudden a chilling blast comes roaring through", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The trembling shrouds, and startles all the crew;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They spring to quarters, and perceive too late", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mount of death, the giant strides of fate.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The fullsail’d ship, with instantaneous shock", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dasht into fragments by the floating rock,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Plunges beneath its basement through the wave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And crew and cargo glut the watery grave.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Say, Palfrey, brave good man, was this thy doom?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dwells here the secret of thy midsea tomb?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But, Susan, why that tear? my lovely friend,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Regret may last, but grief should have an end.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An infant then, thy memory scarce can trace", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The lines, though sacred, of thy father’s face;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A generous spouse has well replaced the sire;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "New duties hence new sentiments require.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now where the lakes, those midland oceans, lie", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Columbus turn’d his heaven-illumined eye.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ontario’s banks, unable to retain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The five great Caspians from the distant main,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Burst with the ponderous mass, and forceful whirl’d", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His Lawrence forth, to balance thus the world.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above, bold Erie’s wave sublimely stood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lookt o’er the cliff and heaved his headlong flood;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where dread Niagara bluffs high his brow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And frowns defiance to the world below.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "White clouds of mist expanding o’er him play,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That tinge their skirts in all the beams of day;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pleased Iris wantons in perpetual pride", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bends her rainbows o’er the dashing tide.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Far glimmering in the north, Black Huron runs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Clear Michigan reflects a thousand suns,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bason’d high, on earth’s broad bosom gay,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bright Superior silvers down the day.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Blue mounds beyond them far in ether fade,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Deep groves between them cast a solemn shade,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Slow moves their settling mist in lurid streams", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And dusky radiance streaks the solar beams.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fixt on the view the great discoverer stood", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thus addrest the messenger of good:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But why these seats, that seem reserved to grace", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The social toils of some illustrious race?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Why spread so wide and form’d so fair in vain?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And why so distant rolls the bounteous main?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "These happy regions must forever rest", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of man unseen, by native beasts possest;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the best heritage my sons could boast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Elude their search in far dim deserts lost.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For see, no ship can point her pendants here,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No stream conducts nor ocean wanders near;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Frost, crags and cataracts their north invest,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the tired sun scarce finds their bounds awest.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "To whom the Seraph: Here indeed retires", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The happiest land that feels my fostering fires;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here too shall numerous nations found their seat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And peace and freedom bless the kind retreat.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Led by this arm thy sons shall hither come,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And streams obedient yield the heroes room,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spread a broad passage to their well known main,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor sluice their lakes nor form their soils in vain.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Here my bold Mississippi bends his way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Scorns the dim bounds of yon bleak boreal day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And calls from western heavens, to feed his stream,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rains and floods that Asian seas might claim.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Strong in his march and charged with all the fates", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of regions pregnant with a hundred states,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He holds in balance, ranged on either hand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Two distant oceans and their sundering land,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Commands and drains the interior tracts that lie", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Outmeasuring Europe’s total breadth of sky.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "High in the north his parent fountains wed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And oozing urns adorn his infant head;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In vain proud Frost his nursing lakes would close", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And choke his channel with perennial snows;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From all their slopes he curves his countless rills,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sweeps their long marshes, saps their settling hills;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then stretching, straightening south, he gaily gleams,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swells through the climes and swallows all their streams;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From zone to zone, o’er earth’s broad surface curl’d,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He cleaves his course, he furrows half the world,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now roaring wild through bursting mountains driven,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now calm reflecting all the host of heaven;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Cynthia pausing, her own face admires,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And suns and stars repeat their dancing fires.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wide o’er his meadowy lawns he spreads and feeds", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His realms of canes, his waving world of reeds;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where mammoths grazed the renovating groves,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Slaked their huge thirst and chill’d their fruitless loves;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where elks, rejoicing o’er the extinguished race,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By myriads rise to fill the vacant space.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Earth’s widest gulf expands to meet his wave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Vast isles of ocean in his current lave;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Glad Thetis greets him from his finisht course", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bathes her Nereids in his freshening source.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "To his broad bed their tributary stores", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wisconsin here, there lonely Peter pours;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Croix, from the northeast wilds, his channel fills,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ohio, gather’d from his myriad hills,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yazoo and Black, surcharged by Georgian springs,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rich Illinois his copious treasure brings;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Arkansas, measuring back the sun’s long course,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Moine, Francis, Rouge augment the father’s force.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But chief of all his family of floods", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Missouri marches through his world of woods;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He scorns to mingle with the filial train,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Takes every course to reach alone the main;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Orient awhile his bending sweep he tries,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now drains the southern, now the northern skies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Searches and sunders far the globe’s vast frame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Reluctant joins the sire, and takes at last his name.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "There lies the path thy future sons shall trace,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Plant here their arts, and rear their vigorous race:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A race predestined, in these choice abodes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To teach mankind to tame their fluvial floods,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Retain from ocean, as their work requires,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "These great auxiliars, raised by solar fires,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Force them to form ten thousand roads, and girth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With liquid belts each verdant mound of earth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To aid the colon’s as the carrier’s toil,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To drive the coulter and to fat the soil,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Learn all mechanic arts and oft regain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their native hills in vapor and in rain.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So taught the Saint. The regions nearer drew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And raised resplendent to their Hero’s view", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rich nature’s triple reign; for here elate", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "She stored the noblest treasures of her state,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Adorn’d exuberant this her last domain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As yet unalter’d by her mimic man,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sow’d liveliest gems and plants of proudest grace,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And strung with strongest nerves her animated race.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Retiring far round Hudson’s frozen bay,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Earth’s lessening circles shrink beyond the day;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Snows ever rising with the toils of time", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Choke the chill shrubs that brave the dismal clime;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The beasts all whitening roam the lifeless plain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And caves unfrequent scoop the couch for man.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Where spring’s coy steps in cold Canadia stray,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And joyless seasons hold unequal sway,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He saw the pine its daring mantle rear,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Break the rude blast, and mock the brumal year,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shag the green zone that bounds the boreal skies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bid all southern vegetation rise.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wild o’er the vast impenetrable round", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The untrod bowers of shadowy nature frown’d;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Millennial cedars wave their honors wide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The fir’s tall boughs, the oak’s umbrageous pride,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The branching beech, the aspen’s trembling shade", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Veil the dim heaven and brown the dusky glade.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For in dense crowds these sturdy sons of earth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In frosty regions claim a stronger birth;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where heavy beams the sheltering dome requires", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And copious trunks to feed its wintry fires.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But warmer suns, that southern zones emblaze,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A cool thin umbrage o’er their woodland raise;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Floridia’s shores their blooms around him spread,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Georgian hills erect their shady head;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whose flowery shrubs regale the passing air", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With all the untasted fragrance of the year.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beneath tall trees, dispersed in loose array,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rice-grown lawns their humble garb display;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The infant maize, unconscious of its worth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Points the green spire and bends the foliage forth;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In various forms unbidden harvests rise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And blooming life repays the genial skies.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Where Mexic hills the breezy gulf defend,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spontaneous groves with richer burdens bend.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Anana’s stalk its shaggy honors yields,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Acacia’s flowers perfume a thousand fields,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their cluster’d dates the mast-like palms unfold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The spreading orange waves a load of gold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Connubial vines o’ertop the larch they climb,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The long-lived olive mocks the moth of time,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pomona’s pride, that old Grenada claims,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here smiles and reddens in diviner flames;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pimento, citron scent the sky serene,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "White woolly clusters fringe the cotton’s green,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sturdy fig, the frail deciduous cane", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And foodful cocoa fan the sultry plain.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Here, in one view, the same glad branches bring", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The fruits of autumn and the flowers of spring;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No wintry blasts the unchanging year deform,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor beasts unshelter’d fear the pinching storm;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But vernal breezes o’er the blossoms rove", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And breathe the ripen’d juices through the grove.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Beneath the crystal wave’s inconstant light,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pearls burst their shells to greet the Hero’s sight;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From opening earth in living lustre shine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The various treasures of the blazing mine;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hills, cleft before him, all their stores unfold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The pale platina and the burning gold;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Silver whole mounds, and gems of dazzling ray", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Illume the rocks and shed the beams of day.", "indent": 0 } ] ] }