Page:The West Indies, and Other Poems.djvu/20
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'Fearless o'er gulphs unknown I urge my way,
'Where peril prowls, and shipwreck lurks for prey:
'Hope swells my sail;—in spirit I behold
'That maiden world, twin-sister of the old,
'By nature nursed beyond the jealous sea,
'Denied to ages, but betrothed to me.'2
'Where peril prowls, and shipwreck lurks for prey:
'Hope swells my sail;—in spirit I behold
'That maiden world, twin-sister of the old,
'By nature nursed beyond the jealous sea,
'Denied to ages, but betrothed to me.'2
The winds were prosperous, and the billows bore
The brave adventurer to the promised shore;
Far in the west, array'd in purple light,
Dawn'd the new world on his enraptured sight:
Not Adam, loosen'd from the encumbering earth,
Waked by the breath of God to instant birth,
With sweeter, wilder wonder gazed around,
When life within, and light without he found;
When all creation rushing o'er his soul,
He seem'd to live and breathe throughout the whole.
So felt Columbus, when, divinely fair,
At the last look of resolute despair,
The brave adventurer to the promised shore;
Far in the west, array'd in purple light,
Dawn'd the new world on his enraptured sight:
Not Adam, loosen'd from the encumbering earth,
Waked by the breath of God to instant birth,
With sweeter, wilder wonder gazed around,
When life within, and light without he found;
When all creation rushing o'er his soul,
He seem'd to live and breathe throughout the whole.
So felt Columbus, when, divinely fair,
At the last look of resolute despair,