| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| To America |
| | | Richard Garnett (1835–1906) |
| | | | | After Reading Some Ungenerous Criticisms |
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| WHAT though thy Muse the singer’s art essay | |
| With lip now over-loud, now over-low? | |
| ’T is but the augury that makes her so | |
| Of the high things she hath in charge to say. | |
| How shall the giantess of gold and clay, | 5 |
| Girt with two oceans, crown’d with Arctic snow, | |
| Sandall’d with shining seas of Mexico, | |
| Be par’d to trim proportion in a day? | |
| Thou art too great! Thy million-billow’d surge | |
| Of life bewilders speech, as shoreless sea | 10 |
| Confounds the ranging eye from verge to verge | |
| With mazy strife or smooth immensity. | |
| Not soon or easily shall thence emerge | |
| A Homer or a Shakespeare worthy thee. | |
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