NOT over violet seas that rise and fall | |
| With whispering winds beneath an eastern sky, | |
| Lay the mysterious Island of the Blest, | |
| Nor in the limits of a pent-up lake | |
| Where timid seamen crept from isle to isle | 5 |
| Scattered like stars in heaven, as a child | |
| Through the wide field wanders with doubting foot | |
| By daisies led that ever beckon on; | |
| But with the western sun, ’fore shifting gales | |
| Of hope and doubt, full many a weary soul | 10 |
| Set sail upon the deep, and shot between | |
| The twin tall pillars,—that sheer precipice | |
| From known to mystery,—then into a sea | |
| Where wave and sky were blent with wreaths of cloud, | |
| Without a guide to lead, or star to cheer. | 15 |
| And there he wandered, ere the storm came on | |
| And whelmed his bark, yet in his darkest hour | |
| Found—not the shore he sought amidst the gloom, | |
| But life’s eternal secret clear at last, | |
| Life’s inmost mystery all made bright in death. | 20 |
| And ages passed, and races rose and fell, | |
| And from their ashes other nations sprang | |
| Like flowers that draw life from the past year’s grave. | |
| Last a strong soul, after long days of strife, | |
| Foiling the fears within, the foes without, | 25 |
| Set sail from Spain, and groping in the gloom | |
| After the flying shore, the fable land, | |
| Stood bravely on in face of sea and storm. | |
| And, ere he won his goal, full many a pledge | |
| Of triumph long delayed came drifting on | 30 |
| Far o’er the darkening blue, as land grew near, | |
| Lurking amid a mass of cloudy sky, | |
| Low lying in the far-off western wave. | |
| Then year by year swept on, and as they ran, | |
| Great forests rose and crumbled, and the lives | 35 |
| Of men passed with them, while a mighty race | |
| Was gathering slowly, as the atoms meet | |
| That go to form the framework of a star, | |
| And mid the crash of kingdoms and of throne | |
| Rising like coral reefs from thundering seas. | 40 |
| And British speech and British laws were theirs, | |
| And British princes. Faithfully they served | |
| For many a year, and rendered every due | |
| As it beseemed them, till an evil day | |
| Came on the rulers, and possessed their souls | 45 |
| With foul injustice working cruel wrong. | |
| Then flamed our fathers’ spirit, and they dared | |
| A struggle all uneven, till they broke | |
| The tyrant’s chain and won their human right, | |
| Earning their freedom with free heart and soul. | 50 |
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