Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79. | | | | Introductory to America | | The Voyage to Vinland | | James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) |
| | * * * * * FOUR weeks they sailed, a speck in sky-shut seas, | |
| Life, where was never life that knew itself, | |
| But tumbled, lubber-like, in blowing whales; | |
| Thought, where the like had never been before | |
| Since Thought primeval brooded the abyss; | 5 |
| Alone as men were never in the world. | |
| They saw the icy foundlings of the sea, | |
| White cliffs of silence, beautiful by day, | |
| Or looming, sudden-perilous, at night | |
| In monstrous hush; or sometimes in the dark | 10 |
| The waves broke ominous with paly gleams | |
| Crushed by the prow in sparkles of cold fire. | |
| Then came green stripes of sea that promised land | |
| But brought it not, and on the thirtieth day | |
| Low in the West were wooded shores like cloud. | 15 |
| They shouted as men shout with sudden hope; | |
| But Biörn was silent, such strange loss there is | |
| Between the dream’s fulfilment and the dream, | |
| Such sad abatement in the goal attained. | |
| Then Gudrida, that was a prophetess, | 20 |
| Rapt with strange influence from Atlantis, sang: | |
| Her words: the vision was the dreaming shore’s. | |
| |
| Looms there the New Land: | |
| Locked in the shadow | |
| Long the gods shut it, | 25 |
| Niggards of newness | |
| They, the o’er-old. | |
| |
| Little it looks there, | |
| Slim as a cloud-streak; | |
| It shall fold peoples | 30 |
| Even as a shepherd | |
| Foldeth his flock. | |
| |
| Silent it sleeps now; | |
| Great ships shall seek it, | |
| Swarming as salmon; | 35 |
| Noise of its numbers | |
| Two seas shall hear. | |
| |
| Man from the Northland, | |
| Man from the Southland, | |
| Haste empty-handed; | 40 |
| No more than manhood | |
| Bring they, and hands. | |
| |
| Dark hair and fair hair, | |
| Red blood and blue blood, | |
| There shall be mingled; | 45 |
| Force of the ferment | |
| Makes the New Man. | |
| |
| Pick of all kindreds, | |
| King’s blood shall theirs be, | |
| Shoots of the eldest | 50 |
| Stock upon Midgard, | |
| Sons of the poor. | |
| |
| Them waits the New Land; | |
| They shall subdue it, | |
| Leaving their sons’ sons | 55 |
| Space for the body, | |
| Space for the soul. * * * * * | | | | |
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