The Columbiad: A Poem Part 2

Long gazed the Mariner; when thus the Guide: Here spreads the world thy daring sail descried, Hesperia call'd, from my anterior claim; But now Columbia, from thy patriarch name.

So from Phenicia's peopled strand of yore Europa sail'd, and sought an unknown sh.o.r.e; There stampt her sacred name; and thence her race, Hale, venturous, bold, from Jove's divine embrace, Ranged o'er the world, predestined to bestride Earth's elder continents and each far tide.

Ages unborn shall bless the happier day, That saw thy streamer shape the guideless way, Their bravest heroes trace the path you led, And sires of nations thro the regions spread.

Behold yon isles, where first thy flag unfurl'd In bloodless triumph o'er the younger world; As, awed to silence, savage bands gave place, And hail'd with joy the sun-descended race.

Retrace the banks yon rus.h.i.+ng waters lave; There Orinoco checks great ocean's wave; Thine is the stream; it cleaves the well known coast, Where Paria's walks thy former footsteps boast.

But these no more thy wide discoveries bound; Superior prospects lead their swelling round; Nature's remotest scenes before thee roll, And years and empires open on thy soul.

To yon dim rounds first elevate thy view; See Quito's plains o'erlook their proud Peru; On whose huge base, like isles amid sky driven, A vast protuberance props the cope of heaven; Earth's loftiest turrets there contend for height, And all our Andes fill the bounded sight.

From south to north what long blue swells arise, Built thro the clouds, and lost in ambient skies!

Approaching slow they heave expanding bounds, The yielding concave bends sublimer rounds; Whose wearied stars, high curving to the west, Pause on the summits for a moment's rest; Rec.u.mbent there they renovate their force, And roll rejoicing on their downward course.

Round each bluff base the sloping ravine bends; Hills forms on hills, and croupe o'er croupe extends; Ascending, whitening, how the crags are lost, O'erhung with headcliffs of eternal frost!

Broad fields of ice give back the morning ray, Like walls of suns, or heaven's perennial day.

There folding storms on eastern pinions ride, Veil the black void, and wrap the mountains side, Rude thunders rake the crags, the rains descend, And the long lightnings o'er the vallies bend; While blasts unburden'd sweep the cliffs of snow, The whirlwinds wheel above, the floods convolve below.

There molten rocks explosive rend their tomb; Volcanos, laboring many a nation's doom, Wild o'er the regions pour their floods of fire; The sh.o.r.es heave backward, and the seas retire.

There lava waits my late reluctant call, To roar aloft and shake some guilty wall; Thy pride, O Lima, swells the sulphurous wave, And fanes and priests and idols crowd thy grave.

But cease, my son, these dread events to trace, Nor learn the woes that here await thy race.

Anorth from that broad gulph, where verdant rise Those gentler mounds that skirt the temperate skies, A happier hemisphere invites thy view; Tis there the old world shall embrace the new: There Europe's better sons their seat shall trace, And change of government improve the race.

Thro all the midsky zones, to yon blue pole, Their green hills lengthen, their bright rivers roll; And swelling westward, how their champaigns run!

How slope their uplands to the morning sun!

So spoke the blest Immortal; when more near His northern wilds in all their breadth appear; Lands yet unknown, and streams without a name Rise into vision and demand their fame.

As when some saint first gains his bright abode, Vaults o'er the spheres and views the works of G.o.d, Sees earth, his kindred orb, beneath him roll, Here glow the centre, and there point the pole; O'er land and sea his eyes delighted rove, And human thoughts his heavenly joys improve; With equal scope the raptured Hero's sight Ranged the low vale, or climb'd the cloudy height, As, fixt in ardent look, his opening mind, Explored the realms that here invite mankind.

From sultry Mobile's gulph-indented sh.o.r.e To where Ontario hears his Laurence roar, Stretch'd o'er the broadback'd hills, in long array.

The tenfold Alleganies meet the day.

And show, far sloping from the plains and streams, The forest azure streak'd with orient beams.

High moved the scene, Columbus gazed sublime, And thus in prospect hail'd the happy clime: Blest be the race my guardian guide shall lead Where these wide vales their various bounties spread!

What treasured stores the hills must here combine!

Sleep still ye diamonds, and ye ores refine; Exalt your heads ye oaks, ye pines ascend, Till future navies bid your branches bend; Then spread the canva.s.s o'er the watery way, Explore new worlds and teach the old your sway.

He said, and northward cast his curious eyes On other cliffs of more exalted size.

Where Maine's bleak breakers line the dangerous coast, And isles and shoals their latent horrors boast, High lantern'd in his heaven the cloudless White Heaves the glad sailor an eternal light; Who far thro troubled ocean greets the guide, And stems with steadier helm the stormful tide.

Nor could those heights unnoticed raise their head, That swell sublime o'er Hudson's shadowy bed; Tho fiction ne'er has hung them in the skies, Tho White and Andes far superior rise, Yet h.o.a.ry Kaatskill, where the storms divide, Would lift the heavens from Atlas' laboring pride.

Land after land his pa.s.sing notice claim, And hills by hundreds rise without a name; Hills yet unsung, their mystic powers untold; Celestials there no sacred senates hold; No chain'd Prometheus feasts the vulture there, No Cyclop forges thro their summits glare, To Phrygian Jove no victim smoke is curl'd, Nor ark high landing quits a deluged world.

But were these ma.s.ses piled on Asia's sh.o.r.e, Taurus would shrink, Hemodia strut no more, Indus and Ganges scorn their humble sires, And rising suns salute superior fires; Whose watchful priest would meet, with matin blaze, His earlier G.o.d, and sooner chaunt his praise.

For here great nature, with a bolder hand, Roll'd the broad stream, and heaved the lifted land; And here from finish'd earth, triumphant trod The last ascending steps of her creating G.o.d.

He saw these mountains ope their watery stores, Floods quit their caves and seek the distant sh.o.r.es; Wilcl thro disparting plains their waves expand, And lave the banks where future towns must stand.

Whirl'd from the monstrous Andes' bursting sides, Maragnon leads his congregating tides; A thousand Alps for him dissolve their snow, A thousand Rhones obedient bend below, From different zones their ways converging wind, Sweep beds of ore, and leave their gold behind, In headlong cataracts indignant rave, Rush to his banks and swell the swallowing wave.

Ucayla, first of all his mighty sons, From Cusco's walls a wearied journey runs; Pastaza mines proud Pambamarca's base, And holds thro sundering hills his lawless race; Aloft, where Cotopaxa flames on high, The roaring Napo quits his misty sky, Down the long steeps in whitening torrents driven, Like Nile descending from his fabled heaven; Mound after mound impetuous Tigris rends, Curved Ista folds whole countries in his bends; Vast Orinoco, summon'd forth to bring His far fetch'd honors to the sateless king, Drives on his own strong course to gain the sh.o.r.e, But sends Catuba here with half his store; Like a broad Bosphorus here Negro guides The gather'd ma.s.s of fifty furious tides; From his waste world, by nameless fountains fed, Wild Purus wears his long and lonely bed; O'er twelve degrees of earth Madera flows, And robs the south of half its treasured snows; Zingus, of equal length and heavier force, Rolls on, for months, the same continuous course To reach his master's bank; that here constrains Topayo, charged with all Brazilians rains; While inland seas, and lakes unknown to fame, Send their full tributes to the monarch stream; Who, swell'd with growing conquest, wheels abroad, Drains every land, and gathers all his flood; Then far from clime to clime majestic goes, Enlarging, widening, deepening as he flows; Like heaven's broad milky way he s.h.i.+nes alone, Spreads o'er the globe its equatorial zone, Weighs the cleft continent, and pushes wide Its balanced mountains from each crumbling side.

Sire Ocean hears his proud Maragnon roar, Moves up his bed, and seeks in vain the sh.o.r.e, Then surging strong, with high and h.o.a.ry tide, Whelms back the Stream and checks his rolling pride.

The stream ungovernable foams with ire, Climbs, combs tempestuous, and attacks the Sire; Earth feels the conflict o'er her bosom spread, Her isles and uplands hide their wood-crown'd head; League after league from land to water change, From realm to realm the seaborn monsters range; Vast midland heights but pierce the liquid plain, Old Andes tremble for their proud domain; Till the fresh Flood regains his forceful sway, Drives back his father Ocean, lash'd with spray; Whose ebbing waters lead the downward sweep, And waves and trees and banks roll whirling to the deep.

Where suns less ardent cast their golden beams, And minor Andes pour a waste of streams, The marsh of Moxoe scoops the world, and fills (From Bahia's coast to Cochabamba's hills) A thousand leagues of bog; he strives in vain Their floods to centre and their lakes retain; His gulphs o'ercharged their opening sides display, And southern vales prolong the seaward way.

Columbus traced, with swift exploring eye, The immense of waves that here exalted lie, The realms that mound the unmeasured magazine, The far blue main, the climes that stretch between.

He saw Xaraya's diamond banks unfold, And Paraguay's deep channel paved with gold, Saw proud Potosi lift his glittering head, And pour down Plata thro his tinctured bed.

Rich with the spoils of many a distant mine, In his broad silver sea their floods combine; Wide over earth his annual freshet strays, And highland drains with lowland drench repays; Her thirsty regions wait his glad return, And drink their future harvest from his urn.

Where the cold circles gird the southern sky.

Brave Magellan's wild channel caught his eye; The long cleft ridges wall'd the spreading way.

That gleams far westward to an unknown sea.

Soon as the distant swell was seen to roll, His ancient wishes reabsorb'd his soul; Warm from his heaving heart a sudden sigh Burst thro his lips; he turn'd his moisten'd eye, And thus besought his Angel: speak, my guide, Where leads the pa.s.s? and what yon purple tide?

How the dim waves in blending ether stray!

No lands behind them rise, no pinions on them play.

There spreads, belike, that other unsail'd main I sought so long, and sought, alas, in vain; To gird this watery globe, and bring to light Old India's coast; and regions wrapt in night.

Restore, celestial friend, my youthful morn, Call back my years, and let my fame return; Grant me to trace, beyond that pathless sea, Some happier sh.o.r.e from l.u.s.t of empire free; To find in that far world a peaceful bower, From envy safe and curst Ovando's power.

Earth's happiest realms let not their distance hide, Nor seas forever roll their useless tide.

For nations yet unborn, that wait thy time, Demand their seats in that secluded clime; Ah, grant me still, their pa.s.sage to prepare.

One venturous bark, and be my life thy care.

So pray'd the Hero; Hesper mild replies, Divine compa.s.sion softening in his eyes, Tho still to virtuous deeds thy mind aspires, And these glad visions kindle new desires, Yet hear with reverence what attends thy state, Nor wish to pa.s.s the eternal bounds of fate.

Led by this sacred light thou soon shalt see That half mankind shall owe their seats to thee, Freedom's first empire claim its promised birth In these rich rounds of sea-encircled earth; Let other years, by thine example prest, Call forth their heroes to explore the rest.

Thro different seas a twofold pa.s.sage lies To where sweet India scents a waste of skies.

The circling course, by Madagascar's sh.o.r.es, Round Afric's cape, bold Gama now explores; Thy well plann'd path these gleamy straits provide, Nor long shall rest the daring search untried.

This idle frith must open soon to fame, Here a lost Lusitanian fix his name, From that new main in furious waves be tost, And fall neglected on the barbarous coast.

But lo the Chief! bright Albion bids him rise, Speed in his pinions, ardor in his eyes!

Hither, O Drake, display thy hastening sails, Widen ye pa.s.ses, and awake ye gales, March thou before him, heaven-revolving sun, Wind his long course, and teach him where to run; Earth's distant sh.o.r.es, in circling bands unite, Lands, learn your fame, and oceans, roll in light, Round all the watery globe his flag be hurl'd, A new Columbus to the astonish'd world.

He spoke; and silent tow'rd the northern sky Wide o'er the hills the Hero cast his eye, Saw the long floods thro devious channels pour, And wind their currents to the opening sh.o.r.e; Interior seas and lonely lakes display Their glittering glories to the beams of day.

Thy capes, Virginia, towering from the tide, Raise their blue banks, and slope thy barriers wide, To future sails unfold an inland way, And guard secure thy multifluvian Bay; That drains uncounted realms, and here unites The liquid ma.s.s from Alleganian heights.

York leads his wave, imbank'd in flowery pride, And n.o.bler James falls winding by his side; Back to the hills, thro many a silent vale, While Rappahanok seems to lure the sail, Patapsco's bosom courts the hand of toil, Dull Susquehanna laves a length of soil; But mightier far, in sealike azure spread, Potowmak sweeps his earth disparting bed.

Long dwelt his eye where these commingling pour'd, Their waves unkeel'd, their havens unexplored; Where frowning forests stretch the dusky wing, And deadly damps forbid the flowers to spring; No seasons clothe the field with cultured grain, No buoyant s.h.i.+p attempts the chartless main; Then with impatient voice: My Seer, he cried, When shall my children cross the lonely tide?

Here, here my sons, the hand of culture bring, Here teach the lawn to smile, the grove to sing: Ye laboring floods, no longer vainly glide, Ye harvests load them, and ye forests ride; Bear the deep burden from the joyous swain, And tell the world where peace and plenty reign.

Hesper to this return'd him no reply, But raised new visions to his roving eye.

He saw broad Delaware the sh.o.r.es divide, He saw majestic Hudson pour his tide; Thy stream, my Hartford, thro its misty robe, Play'd in the sunbeams, belting far the globe; No watery glades thro richer vallies s.h.i.+ne, Nor drinks the sea a lovelier wave than thine.

Mystick and Charles refresh their seaward isles, And gay Piscateway pays his pa.s.sing smiles; Swift Kenebec, high bursting from his lakes, Shoots down the hillsides thro the clouds he makes; And hoa.r.s.e resounding, gulphing wide the sh.o.r.e, Dread Laurence labors with tremendous roar; Laurence, great son of Ocean! lorn he lies, And braves the blasts of hyperborean skies.

Where h.o.a.ry winter holds his howling reign, And April flings her timid showers in vain, Groans the choked Flood, in frozen fetters bound, And isles of ice his angry front surround.

As old Enceladus, in durance vile, Spreads his huge length beneath Sicilia's isle, Feels mountains, crush'd by mountains, on him prest, Close not his veins, nor still his laboring breast; His limbs convulse, his heart rebellious rolls, Earth shakes responsive to her utmost poles, While rumbling, bursting, boils his ceaseless ire, Flames to mid heaven, and sets the skies on fire.

So the contristed Laurence lays him low, And hills of sleet and continents of snow Rise on his crystal breast; his heaving sides Crash with the weight, and pour their gus.h.i.+ng tides, Asouth, whence all his hundred branches bend, Relenting airs with boreal blasts contend; Far in his vast extremes he swells and thaws, And seas foam wide between his ice-bound jaws.

Indignant Frost, to hold his captive, plies His hosted fiends that vex the polar skies, Unlocks his magazines of nitric stores, Azotic charms and muriatic powers; Hail, with its gla.s.sy globes, and brume congeal'd, Rime's fleecy flakes, and storm that heaps the field Strike thro the sullen Stream with numbing force, Obstruct his sluices and impede his course.

In vain he strives; his might interior fails; Nor spring's approach, nor earth's whole heat avails; He calls his h.o.a.ry Sire; old Ocean roars Responsive echoes thro the Shetland sh.o.r.es.

He comes, the Father! from his bleak domains, To break with liquid arms the sounding chains; Clothed in white majesty, he leads from far His tides high foaming to the wintry war.

Billows on billows lift the maddening brine, And seas and clouds in battling conflict join, O'erturn the vast gulph glade with rending sweep, And crash the crust that bridged the boiling deep; Till forced aloft, bright bounding thro the air, Moves the blear ice, and sheds a dazzling glare; The torn foundations on the surface ride, And wrecks of winter load the downward tide.

The loosen'd ice-isles o'er the main advance, Toss on the surge, and thro the concave dance; Whirl'd high, conjoin'd, in crystal mountains driven, Alp over Alp, they build a midway heaven; Whose million mirrors mock the solar ray, And give condensed the tenfold glare of day.

As tow'rd the south the ma.s.s enormous glides.