{ "id": "joel-barlow/book-iv", "title": "Book IV", "ordinal": null, "subtitle": null, "poet": "Joel Barlow", "poet_slug": "joel-barlow", "language": "en", "book": "The Columbiad", "book_slug": "the-columbiad", "book_kind": "volume", "sequence": 4, "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-4.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": 644, "n_stanzas": 53, "n_parts": 0, "longest_line_chars": 55, "max_indent": 0 }, "site_ready": true, "parts": [], "stanzas": [ [ { "text": "In one dark age beneath a single hand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thus rose an empire in the savage land.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Its wealth and power with following years increase,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Its growing nations spread the walks of peace;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Religion here, that universal name,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Man’s proudest passion, most ungovern’d flame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Erects her altars on the same bright base,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That dazzled erst, and still deludes the race;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sun, moon, all powers that forceful strike his eyes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Earth-shaking storms and constellated skies.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Yet all the pomp his labors here unfold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The vales of verdure and the towers of gold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Those infant arts and sovereign seats of state,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In short-lived glory hasten to their fate.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy followers, rushing like an angry flood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Too soon shall drench them in the nation’s blood;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor thou, Las Casas, best of men, shalt stay", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The ravening legions from their guardless prey.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O hapless prelate! hero, saint and sage!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Foredoom’d with crimes a fruitless war to wage,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To see at last, thy life of virtue run,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A realm unpeopled and a world undone!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While impious Valverde, mock of priesthood stands,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Guilt in his heart, the gospel in his hands,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bids in one field their unarm’d thousands bleed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Smiles o’er the scene and sanctifies the deed.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thou, brave Gasca, with persuasive strain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shalt lift thy voice and urge thy power in vain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Vain are thy hopes the sinking land to save", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or call her slaughter’d millions from the grave.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Here Hesper paused. Columbus with a sigh", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Cast o’er the continent his moisten’d eye", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And thus replied: Ah, hide me in the tomb;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Why should I live to see the impending doom?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "If such foul deeds the scheme of heaven compose,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And virtue’s toils induce redoubled woes,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unfold no more; but grant a kind release;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Give me, ’tis all I ask, to rest in peace.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And thou shalt rest in peace, the Saint rejoin’d,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ere these conflicting shades involve mankind.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But broader views shall first thy mind engage,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Years far advanced beyond this darksome age", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shall feast thee here; the fruits of thy long care", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A grateful world beneath thy ken shall share.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Europe’s contending kings shall soon behold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "These fertile plains and hills of treasured gold;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And in the path of thy adventurous sail", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their countless navies float on every gale;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For wealth and commerce search the western shore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And load each ocean with the shining ore.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "As up the orient heaven the dawning ray", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Smiles o’er the hills and gives the promised day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Drives fraud and rapine from their nightly spoil,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And social nature wakes to various toil;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So from the blazing mine the golden store", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Mid rival states shall spread from shore to shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unite their force, its opulence to share,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Extend the pomp but sooth the rage of war;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wide through the world while genius unconfined", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tempts loftier flights and opens all the mind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dissolves the slavish bands of monkish lore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wakes the bold arts and bids the Muses soar.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Then shall thy northern climes their seats display,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "United nations there commence their sway;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er earth and ocean spread their peerless fame", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And send through time thy patriarchal name.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now turn thy view to Europe; see the rage", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of feudal faction every court engage;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All honest labor, all commercial ties", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their kings discountenance, their lords despise.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The naked harbors looking to the main,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rear their kind cliffs and break the storms in vain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The willing wave no foreign treasures lade,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor sails nor cities cast a watery shade;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Save, where yon opening gulf the strand divides,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Proud Venice bathes her in the broken tides,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Weds her tamed sea, shakes every distant throne", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And deems by right the naval world her own.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Yet must we mark, the bondage of the mind", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spreads deeper glooms and subjugates mankind;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The zealots fierce, whom local creeds enrage,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In holy feuds perpetual combat wage,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Support all crimes by full indulgence given,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Usurp the power and wield the sword of heaven.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But lo, where future years their scenes unroll,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rising arts inspire the venturous soul.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From all the ports that cleave the coast of Spain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "New fleets ascending streak the western main;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From Tago’s bank, from Albion’s rocky round,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Commercing squadrons o’er the billows bound;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through Afric’s isles observe the sweeping sails,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Full pinions tossing in Arabian gales,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Indus and Ganges deep in canvass lost", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And navies crowding round Cambodia’s coast;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "New nations rise, all climes and oceans brave", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And shade with sheets the immeasurable wave.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "See lofty Ximenes with solemn gait", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Move from the cloister to the walks of state,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And through the factious monarchies of Spain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Curb the fierce lords and fix one royal reign.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Behold dread Charles the imperial seat ascends,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er Europe’s thrones his conquering arm extends;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While wealthier shores beneath the western day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unfold their treasures to confirm his sway.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Roused at false glory’s fascinating call,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "See Francis train the gallant youths of Gaul,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’erstrain the strength of her extended states,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Scale the proud Alps or burst their granite gates,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On Pavia’s plain for Caesar’s crown contend,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of arms the votary but of arts the friend.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And see proud Wolsey rise, securely great,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Kings at his call and mitres round him wait;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From monkish walls the hoarded wealth he draws", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To aid the tyrant and restrain the laws,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wakes Albion’s genius, neighboring princes braves", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And shares with them the commonwealth of waves,", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Behold dark Solyman from eastern skies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With his grim host magnificently rise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wave his broad crescent o’er the midland sea,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through vast Hungaria drive his conquering way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Crowd close the christian powers and carry far", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rules of homicide, the lore of war.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Tuscan dukes excite a nobler strife;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lorenzo calls the Fine Arts forth to life,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fair nature’s mimic maids; whose powers divine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her charms develop and her laws define;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From sire to son the splendid labors spread,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Leo follows where good Cosmo led.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Waked from the ground that Gothic rovers trod", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Starts the bronze hero and the marble god;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Monks, prelates, pontiffs pay the reverence due", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To that bold taste their Grecian masters knew;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Resurgent temples throng the Latian shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The pencil triumphs and the Muses soar.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "O’er the dark world Erasmus rears his eye,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In schoolman lore sees kings and nations lie,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With strength of judgment and with fancy warm", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Derides their follies and dissolves the charm,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tears the deep veil that bigot zeal has thrown", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On pagan books and science long unknown,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From faith in senseless rites relieves mankind", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And seats bold virtue in the conscious mind.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But still the frightful task, to face alone", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The jealous vengeance of the papal throne,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Restrains his hand; he gives the contest o’er", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And leaves his hardier sons to curb that power.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Luther walks forth in yon majestic frame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bright beam of heaven, and heir of endless fame,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Born like thyself through toils and griefs to wind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From slavery’s chains to free the captive mind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Brave adverse crowns, control the pontiff sway", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bring benighted nations into day.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Remark what crowds his name around him brings,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Schools, synods, prelates, potentates and kings,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All gaining knowledge from his boundless store,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And join’d to shield him from the papal power.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "First of his friends see Frederic’s princely form", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ward from the sage divine the gathering storm,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In learned Wittenberg secure his seat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "High throne of thought, religion’s safe retreat.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There sits Melancthon, mild as morning light,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And feuds, though sacred, soften in his sight;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In terms so gentle flows his tuneful tongue,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Even cloister’d bigots join the pupil throng;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By all sectarian chiefs he lives approved,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By monarchs courted and by men beloved.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "And lo, where Europe’s utmost limits bend,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From this new source what various lights ascend!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "See haughty Henry, from the papal tie", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His realms dissever, and the priest defy;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While Albion’s sons disdain a foreign throne", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And learn to bound the oppressions of their own.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then rises Loyola, a strange new name,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By paths unseen to reach the goal of fame;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through courts and camps he teaches how to wind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To mine whole states and overreach mankind.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Train’d in his school, a bold and artful race", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Range o’er the world and every sect embrace,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All creeds and powers and policies explore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "New seats of science raise on every shore;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till their wide empire gains a wondrous birth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Built in all empires o’er this ancient earth.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our wildmen too, the tribes of Paraguay,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Receive their rites and bow beneath their sway.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The world of men thus moving in thy view", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Improve their state, more useful works pursue;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unwonted deeds in rival greatness shine,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Call’d into life, and first inspired by thine.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "So while imperial Homer tunes the lyre,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His living lays unnumber’d bards inspire;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From age to age the kindling spirit flies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sounds through the earth and echoes to the skies.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Now roll the years, when Europe’s ample space", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By peace and culture rears a wiser race,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Men bred to labor, school’d in freedom’s lore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And formed to colonize our favorite shore.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To speed their course, the sons of bigot rage", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In persecution whelm the inquiring age;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Myriads of martyr’d heroes mount the pyre,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And blind devotion lights the sacred fire.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Led by the dark Dominicans of Spain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A newborn Fury walks the wide domain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Gaunt Inquisition; mark her giant stride,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her blood-nursed vulture screaming at her side.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her priestly train the tools of torment brings.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Racks, wheels and crosses, faggots, stakes and strings;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Scaffolds and cages round her altar stand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And, tipt with sulphur, waves her flaming brand.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her imps of inquest round the fiend advance,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Suspectors grave and spies with eye askance,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pretended heretics who worm the soul,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sly confessors with their secret scroll,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Accusers hired, for each conviction paid,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Judges retain’d and witnesses by trade.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Dragged from a thousand jails her victim trains,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Jews, Moors and Christians clank alike their chains,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Read their known sentence in her fiery eyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And breathe to heaven their unavailing cries;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Lasht on the pile their writhing bodies turn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And veil’d in doubling smoke begin to burn.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where the flames open, lo their limbs in vain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Reach out for help, distorted by the pain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till folded in the fires they disappear", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And not a sound invades the startled ear.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "See Philip throned in insolence and pride", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Enjoy their wailings and their pangs deride;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While o’er the same dread scenes on Albion’s isles", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His well-taught spouse, the cruel Mary smiles.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What clouds of smoke hang heavy round the shore!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What altars hecatomb’d with christian gore!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her sire’s best friends, the wise, the brave, the good,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Roll in the flames or fly the land of blood.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "To Gallia’s plains the maddening frenzy turns,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Religion raves and civil discord burns;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Leaguers and Huguenots their vengeance pour,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They swell Bartholemy’s wide feast of gore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Alternate victors bid their gibbets rise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the foul stench of victims chokes the skies.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Now cease the factions with the Valois line,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Bourbon’s virtues every voice combine.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Quell’d by his fame, the furious sects accord,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Europe respires beneath his guardian sword;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Batavia’s states to independence soar", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And curb the cohorts of Iberian power.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From Albion’s ports her infant navies heave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stretch forth and thunder on the Flandrian wave;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her Howard there first foils the force of Spain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And there begins her mastery of the main.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Seraph spoke; when full beneath their eye,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A new-form’d squadron rose along the sky,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "High on the tallest deck majestic shone", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sage Raleigh, pointing to the western sun;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His eye, bent forward, ardent and sublime,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Seem’d piercing nature and evolving time;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Beside him stood a globe, whose figures traced", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A future empire in each present waste;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All former works of men behind him shone", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Graved by his hand in ever during stone;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On his calm brow a various crown displays", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The hero’s laurel and the scholar’s bays;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His graceful limbs in steely mail were drest,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The bright star burning on his lofty breast;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His sword high waving flash’d the solar ray,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Illumed the shrouds and rainbow’d far the spray;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The smiling crew rose resolute and brave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the glad sails hung bounding o’er the wave.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Storms of wild Hatteras, suspend your roar,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ye tumbling billows, cease to shake the shore;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Look through the doubling clouds, thou lamp of day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Teach the bold Argonauts their chartless way;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Your viewless capes, broad Chesapeake, unfold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And show your promised Colchis fleeced with gold.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No plundering squadron your new Jason brings;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No pirate demigods nor hordes of kings", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From shore to shore a faithless miscreant steers", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To steal a maid and leave a sire in tears,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But yon wise chief conducts with careful ken", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The queen of colonies, the best of men,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To wake to fruitful life your slumbering soil", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And rear an empire with the hand of toil.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Your fond Medea too, whose dauntless breast", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All danger braves to screen her hunted guest,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shall quit her native tribe, but never share", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The crimes and sufferings of the Colchian fair.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Blest Pocahontas, fear no lurking guile;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy hero’s love shall well reward thy smile.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ah, sooth the wanderer in his desperate plight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hide him by day and calm his cares by night;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Though savage nations with thy vengeful sire", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pursue their victim with unceasing ire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And though their threats thy startled ear assail,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Let virtue’s voice o’er filial fears prevail.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fly with the faithful youth, his steps to guide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pierce the known thicket, breast the fordless tide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Elude the scout, avoid the ambusht line", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And lead him safely to his friends and thine;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For thine shall be his friends, his heart, his name;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His camp shall shout, his nation boast thy fame.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But now the bay unfolds a passage wide", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And leads the squadron up the freshening tide;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Pohatan spreads deep her sylvan soil,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And grassy lawns allure the steps of toil.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here, lodged in peace, they tread the welcome land,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "An instant harvest waves beneath their hand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spontaneous fruits their easy cares beguile,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And opening fields in living culture smile.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "With joy Columbus view’d; when thus his voice:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ye grove-clad shores, ye generous hosts rejoice;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Exchange your benefits, your gifts combine;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "What nature fashions, let her sons refine.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Be thou, my seer, the people’s guardian friend,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Protect their virtues and their lives defend;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "May wealth and wisdom with their arts unfold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet save, oh save them from the thirst of gold.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Let the poor guardless natives never feel", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The flamen’s fraud, the soldier’s fateful steel;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But learn the blessings that alone attend", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On civil rights where social virtues blend,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In these brave leaders find a welcome guide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And rear their fanes and empires by their side.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Smile, great Hesperia, smile; the star of morn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Illumes thy heavens and bids thy day be born;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy opening forests show the work begun,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy plains unshaded drink a purer sun;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yield now thy bounties, load the laboring main,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Give birth to nations, and begin thy reign.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "The Hero spoke; when thus the Saint rejoin’d,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Approved his joy and feasted still his mind:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Well may thy voice, with patriarch pride elate,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Burst forth triumphant at a scene so great.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here springs indeed the day, since time began,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The brightest, broadest, happiest morn of man.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "In these prime settlements thy raptures trace", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The germ, the genius of a sapient race,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Predestined here to methodize and mold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "New codes of empire to reform the old.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "A work so vast a second world required,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "By oceans bourn’d, from elder states retired;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where, uncontaminated, unconfined,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Free contemplation might expand the mind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To form, fix, prove the well-adjusted plan", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And base and build the commonwealth of man.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "This arm, that leads the stellar host of even,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That stretcht o’er yon rude ridge the western heaven,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That heal’d the wounded earth when from her side", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The moon burst forth and left the South Sea tide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That calm’d these elements and taught them where", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To mold their mass and rib the crusted sphere,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Line the closed continent with wrecks of life,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And recommence their generating strife,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That rear’d the mountain, spread the subject plain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Led the long stream and roll’d the billowy main,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Stole from retiring tides the growing strand,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Heaved the green banks, the shadowy inlets plann’d,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Strow’d the wild fruitage, gave the beast his place", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And form’d the region for thy filial race⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "This arm prepared their future seats of state,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Design’d their limits and prescribed their date.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "When first the staggering globe its breach repair’d,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And this bold hemisphere its shoulders rear’d,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Back to those heights, whose hovering vapor shrouds", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My rock-raised world in Alleganian clouds,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Atlantic waste its coral kingdom spread,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And scaly nations here their gambols led;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till by degrees, through following tracts of time,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From laboring ocean rose the sedgy clime,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "As from unloaded waves, the rising sand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swell’d into light and gently drew to land.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For, moved by trade winds o’er the flaming zone,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The waves roll westward with the constant sun,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Meet my firm isthmus, scoop that gulfy bed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wheel to the north and here their current spread.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Those ravaged banks, that move beneath their force,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Borne on the tide and lost along their course,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Create the shore, consolidate the soil", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And hither lead the enlighten’d steps of toil.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Think not the lust of gold shall here annoy,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Enslave the nation and its nerve destroy.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No useles mine these northern hills enclose,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No ruby ripens and no diamond glows;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But richer stores and rocks of useful mold", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Repay in wealth the penury of gold.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Freedom’s unconquer’d race with healthy toil", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shall lop the grove and warm the furrow’d soil,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From iron ridges break the rugged ore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And plant with men the man-ennobling shore;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sails, villas, towers and temples round them heave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shine o’er the realms and light the distant wave.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor think the native tribes shall rue the day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That leads our heroes o’er the watery way;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A cause like theirs no mean device can mar,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor bigot rage nor sacerdotal war.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From eastern tyrants driven, resolved and brave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To build new states or seek a distant grave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our sons shall try a new colonial plan,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To tame the soil, but spare their kindred man.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Through Europe’s wilds when feudal nations spread,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The pride of conquest every legion led.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Each fur-clad chief, by servile crowds adored,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er conquer’d realms assumed the name of lord,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Built the proud castle, ranged the savage wood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fired his grim host to frequent fields of blood,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With new made honors lured his subject bands,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Price of their lives, and purchase of their lands;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For names and titles bade the world resign", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their faith, their freedom and their rights divine.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Contending baronies their terrors spread,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And slavery follow’d where the standard led;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till, little tyrants by the great o’erthrown,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The spoils of nobles build the regal crown;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wealth, wisdom, virtue, every claim of man", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unguarded fall to consummate the plan.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ambitious cares, that nature never gave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Torment alike the monarch and the slave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Through all degrees in gradual pomp ascend,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Honor the name, but tyranny the end.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Far different honors here the heart shall claim,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sublimer objects, deeds of happier fame;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A new creation waits the western shore,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And moral triumphs o’er monarchic power.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thy freeborn sons, with genius unconfined,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor sloth can slacken nor a tyrant bind;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With self-wrought fame and worth internal blest", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No venal star shall brighten on their breast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Nor king-created name nor courtly art", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Damp the bold thought or desiccate the heart.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Above all fraud, beyond all titles great,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Truth in their voice and sceptres at their feet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Like sires of unborn states they move sublime,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Look empires through and span the breadth of time,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hold o’er the world, that men may choose from far,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The palm of peace, or scourge of barbarous war;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till their example every nation charms,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Commands its friendship and its rage disarms.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Here social man a second birth shall find,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And a new range of reason lift his mind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Feed his strong intellect with purer light,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A nobler sense of duty and of right,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sense of liberty; whose holy fire", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His life shall temper and his laws inspire,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Purge from all shades the world-embracing scope", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That prompts his genius and expands his hope.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "When first his form arose erect on earth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Parturient nature hail’d the wondrous birth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With fairest limbs and finest fibres wrought", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And framed for vast and various toils of thought.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To aid his promised powers with loftier flight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And stretch his views beyond corporeal sight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Prometheus came and from the floods of day", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sunn’d his clear soul with heaven’s internal ray,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The expanding spark divine, that round him springs", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And leads and lights him through the immense of things,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Probes the dense earth, explores the soundless main,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Remolds their mass through all its threefold reign,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er great, o’er small extends his physic laws,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Impalms the empyrean or dissects a gaz,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Weighs the vast orbs of heaven, bestrides the sky,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Walks on the windows of an insect’s eye;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Turns then to self, more curious still to trace", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The whirls of passion that involve the race,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That cloud with mist the visual lamp of God,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And plunge the poniard in fraternal blood.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Here fails his light. The proud Titanian ray", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er physic nature sheds indeed its day;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yet leaves the moral in chaotic jars,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The spoil of violence, the sport of wars,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Presents contrasted parts of one great plan,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Earth, heaven subdued, but man at swords with man;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His wars, his errors into science grown,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the great cause of all his ills unknown.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But when he steps on these regenerate shores,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His mind unfolding for superior powers,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Freedom, his new Prometheus, here shall rise,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Light her new torch in my refulgent skies,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Touch with a stronger life his opening soul,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of moral systems fix the central goal,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her own resplendent essence. Thence expand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The rays of reason that illume the land;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thence equal rights proceed and equal laws,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Thence holy Justice all her reverence draws;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Truth with untarnish’d beam descending thence", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Strikes every eye, and quickens every sense,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bids bright Instruction spread her ample page", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To drive dark dogmas from the inquiring age,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ope the true treasures of the earth and skies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And teach the student where his object lies.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Sun of the moral world! effulgent source", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of man’s best wisdom and his steadiest force,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Soul-searching Freedom! here assume thy stand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And radiate hence to every distant land;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Point out and prove how all the scenes of strife,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The shock of states, the impassion’d broils of life,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Spring from unequal sway; and how they fly", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Before the splendor of thy peaceful eye;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unfold at last the genuine social plan,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The mind’s full scope, the dignity of man,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bold nature bursting through her long disguise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And nations daring to be just and wise.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Yes! righteous Freedom, heaven and earth and sea", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yield or withold their various gifts for thee;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Protected Industry beneath thy reign", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Leads all the virtues in her filial train;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Courageous Probity with brow serene", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And Temperance calm presents her placid mien;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Contentment, Moderation, Labor, Art", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Mold the new man and humanize his heart;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To public plenty private ease dilates,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Domestic peace to harmony of states.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Protected Industry, careering far,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Detects the cause and cures the rage of war", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And sweeps with forceful arm to their last graves", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Kings from the earth and pirates from the waves.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "But slow proceeds the work. Long toils, my son,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Must base the fabric of so vast a throne;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where Freedom founds her everlasting reign,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And earth’s whole empires form the fair domain.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That great coloniarch, whose exalted soul", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Pervades all scenes that future years unroll,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Must yield the palm and at a courtier’s shrine", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His plans relinquish and his life resign;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His life that brightens, as his death shall stain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The fair, foul annals of his master’s reign.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "That feeble band, the lonely wilds who tread,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their sire, their genius in their Raleigh dead,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shall pine and perish in the savage gloom", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or mount the wave and seek their ancient home.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Others in vain the generous task pursue,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The dangers tempt and all the strife renew;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While kings and ministers obstruct the plan,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Unfaithful guardians of the weal of man.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "At last brave Delaware with his blithe host", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Sails in full triumph to the well known coast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Aids with a liberal hand the patriot cause,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Reforms their policy, designs their laws;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Till o’er Virginia’s plains they spread their sway", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And push their hamlets tow’rd the setting day.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He comes, my Delaware! how mild and bland", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My zephyrs greet him from the long-sought land!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From fluvial glades that through my cantons run,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "From those rich mounds that mask the falling sun.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Borne up my Chesapeake, as first he hails", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The flowery banks that scent his slackening sails,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Descending twilight mellows down the gleam", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That spreads far forward on the broad blue stream;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The moonbeam dancing, as the pendants glide,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Silvers with trembling tints the ripply tide;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The sand-sown beach, the rocky bluff repays", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The faint effulgence with their amber’d rays;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er greenwood glens a browner lustre flies", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And bright-hair’d hills walk shadowy round the skies.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Profound solicitude and strong delight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Absorb the chief as through the waste of night", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He walks the lonely deck and skirts the lands", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That wait their nations from his guiding hands.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Tall through the tide the river gods by turns", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rise round the bark and blend their social urns;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Majestic brotherhood! each feels the power", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To feed an empire from his future store,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "They stand stupendous, flooding full the bay,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And pointing each through different climes the way.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Resplendent o’er the rest, the regent god", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Potomac towers and sways the swelling flood;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Vines clothe his arms, wild fruits o’erfill his horn,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wreaths of green maize his reverend brows adorn,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "His silver beard reflects the lunar day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And round his loins the scaly nations play.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The breeze falls calm, the sails in silence rest,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "While thus his greetings cheer the stranger guest:", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Blest be the bark that seized the promised hour", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To waft thee welcome to this friendly shore.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Long have we learnt the fame that here awaits", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The future sires of our unplanted states;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We all salute thee with our mingling tides,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our high-fenced havens and our fruitful sides.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The hundred realms our myriad fountains drain", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Shall lose their limits in the vast domain;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But my bold banks with proud impatience wait", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The palm of glory in a work so great;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On me thy sons their central seat shall raise", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And crown my labors with distinguisht praise.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For this, from rock-ribb’d lakes I forced my birth", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And climb’d and sunder’d many a mound of earth,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Rent the huge hills that yonder heave on high", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And with their tenfold ridges rake the sky,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Removed whole mountains in my headlong way,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Strow’d a strong soil around this branching bay,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Scoop’d wide his basins to the distant main", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And hung with headlands every marsh they drain.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Haste then, my heroes, tempt the fearless toil,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Enrich your nations with the nurturing spoil;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "O’er my vast vales let yellow harvests wave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Quay the calm ports and dike the lawns I lave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Win from the waters every stagnant fen,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where truant rills escape my conscious ken;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And break those remnant rocks that still impede", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My current crowding through the gaps I made.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "So shall your barks pursue my branching bed,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Slope after slope, to every fountain’s head,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Seat your contiguous towns on all my shores", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And charge my channel with their seaward stores.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Freedom and peace shall well reward your care,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My guardian mounds protect the friendly pair;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Or if delirious war shall dare draw nigh", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And eastern storms o’ercast the western sky,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "My soil shall rear the chief to guide your host", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And drive the demon cringing from the coast;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Yon verdant hill his sylvan seat shall claim", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And grow immortal from his deathless fame.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Then shall your federal towers my bank adorn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And hail with me the great millennial morn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That gilds your capitol. Thence earth shall draw", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Her first clear codes of liberty and law;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There public right a settled form shall find,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Truth trim her lamp to lighten humankind,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Old Afric’s sons their shameful fetters cast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Our wild Hesperians humanize at last,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All men participate, all time expand", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The source of good my liberal sages plann’d.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "This said, he plunges in the sacred flood;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That closes calm and lulls the cradled god.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Exulting at his words, the gallant crew", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Brace the broad canvas and their course pursue:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For now the breathing airs, from ocean born,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Breeze up the bay, and lead the lively morn", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "That lights them to their port. ’Tis here they join", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Their bold precursors in the work divine;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And here their followers, yet a numerous train,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Wind o’er the wave and swell the new domain.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "For impious Laud, on England’s wasted shore", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Renews the flames that Mary fed before;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Contristed sects his sullen fury fly", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To seek new seats beneath a safer sky;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where faith and freedom yield a forceful charm,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And toils and dangers every bosom warm.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Amid the tried unconquerable train,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Whom tyrants press and seas oppose in vain,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "See Plymouth colons stretch their standards o’er,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Face the dark wildmen and the wintry shore;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "See virtuous Baltimore ascend the wave,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "See peaceful Penn its unknown terrors brave;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Swedes, Belgians, Gauls their various flags display,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Full pinions crowding on the watery way;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "All from their different ports, their sails unfurl’d,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Point their glad streamers to the western world.", "indent": 0 } ] ] }