Page:The West Indies, and Other Poems.djvu/80
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though at his own expence, in justice to the Author of the noblest narrative Poem in the English language, after the Faerie Queene, and Paradise Lost.
'When evening came, toward the echoing shore,
'I and Cadwallon walk'd together forth;
'Bright with dilated glory shone the west;
'But brighter lay the ocean flood below,
'The burnish'd silver sea, that heav'd and flash'd
'Its restless rays intolerably bright.
"Prince!" quoth Cadwallon, "thou hast rode the waves
"In triumph when the Invader felt thine arm.
"O, what a nobler conquest might be won
"There,—upon that wide field!"—"What meanest thou?"
'I cried;—"That yonder waters not spread
"A boundless waste, a bourne impassable;
"That thou shouldst rule the elements,—that there
"Might mainly courage, manly wisdom find
"Some happy isle, some undiscover'd shore,
"Some resting place for peace. Oh! that my soul
"Could seize the wings of morning! soon would I
"Behold that other world, where yonder sun
"Now speeds to dawn in glory."
'I and Cadwallon walk'd together forth;
'Bright with dilated glory shone the west;
'But brighter lay the ocean flood below,
'The burnish'd silver sea, that heav'd and flash'd
'Its restless rays intolerably bright.
"Prince!" quoth Cadwallon, "thou hast rode the waves
"In triumph when the Invader felt thine arm.
"O, what a nobler conquest might be won
"There,—upon that wide field!"—"What meanest thou?"
'I cried;—"That yonder waters not spread
"A boundless waste, a bourne impassable;
"That thou shouldst rule the elements,—that there
"Might mainly courage, manly wisdom find
"Some happy isle, some undiscover'd shore,
"Some resting place for peace. Oh! that my soul
"Could seize the wings of morning! soon would I
"Behold that other world, where yonder sun
"Now speeds to dawn in glory."