(Unblest reprieve) and rob the gaping wave,
The morn broke forth, these tearful orbs descried
The golden banks that bound the western tide.
With full success I calm’d the clamorous race,
Bade heaven’s blue arch a second earth embrace;
And gave the astonisht age that bounteous shore,
Their wealth to nations, and to kings their power.
Land of delights! ah, dear delusive coast,
To these fond aged eyes forever lost!
No more thy flowery vales I travel o’er,
For me thy mountains rear the head no more;
For me thy rocks no sparkling gems unfold,
Nor streams luxuriant wear their paths in gold;
From realms of promised peace forever borne,
I hail mute anguish, and in secret mourn.
But dangers past, a world explored in vain,
And foes triumphant show but half my pain.
Dissembling friends, each early joy who gave,
And fired my youth the storms of fate to brave,
Swarm’d in the sunshine of my happier days,
Pursued the fortune and partook the praise,
Now pass my cell with smiles of sour disdain,
Insult my woes and triumph in my pain.
One gentle guardian once could shield the brave;
But now that guardian slumbers in the grave.1
Hear from above, thou dear departed shade!
As then my hopes, so now my sorrows aid,
Burst my full heart, afford that last relief,
Breathe back my sighs and reinspire my grief;
Still in my sight thy royal form appears,
Reproves my silence and demands my tears.
Even on that hour no more I joy to dwell,
When thy protection bade the canvas swell,
When kings and churchmen found their factions vain,
When superstition shrunk beneath her chain,
The sun’s glad beam led on the circling way,
And isles rose beauteous in Atlantic day.
For on those silvery shores, that new domain,
What crowds of tyrants fix their murderous reign!
Her infant realm indignant Freedom flies,
Truth leaves the world and Isabella dies.
Ah, lend thy friendly shroud to veil my sight,
That these pain’d eyes may dread no more the light;
These welcome shades shall close my instant doom,
And this drear mansion moulder to a tomb.
Thus mourn’d the hapless man: a thundering sound
Roll’d through the shuddering walls and shook the ground;
O’er all the dungeon, where black arches bend,
The roofs unfold and streams of light descend;
The growing splendor fills the astonisht room,
And gales ethereal breathe a glad perfume.
Robed in the radiance, moves a form serene,
Of human structure but of heavenly mien;
Near to the prisoner’s couch he takes his stand
And waves, in sign of peace, his holy hand.
Tall rose his stature, youth’s endearing grace
Adorn’d his limbs and brighten’d in his face;
Loose o’er his locks the star of evening hung,
And sounds melodious moved his cheerful tongue:
Rise, trembling chief, to scenes of rapture rise,
This voice awaits thee from the western skies;
Indulge no longer that desponding strain,
Nor count thy toils, nor deem thy virtues vain.
Thou seest in me the guardian Power who keeps
The new found world that skirts Atlantic deeps;
Hesper my name, my seat the brightest throne
In night’s whole heaven, my sire the living sun.
My brother Atlas, from his birthright boast,2
Claims the wild wave, but mine the solid coast.
This hand, which form’d, and in the tides of time
Laves and improves the meliorating clime,
Which taught thy prow to cleave the trackless way,
And hail’d thee first in occidental day,
To all thy worth shall vindicate thy claim,
And raise up nations to revere thy name.
In this dark age though blinded faction sways,
And wealth and conquest gain the palm of praise;
Awed into slaves while groveling millions groan,
And blood-stain’d steps lead upward to a throne;
Far other wreaths thy virtuous temples twine,
Far nobler triumphs crown a life like thine;
Thine be the joys that minds immortal grace,
As thine the deeds that bless a kindred race.
Now raise thy sorrow’d soul to views more bright,
The vision’d ages rushing on thy sight;
Worlds beyond worlds shall bring to light their stores,
Time, nature, science blend their utmost powers,
To show, concentred in one blaze of fame,
The ungather’d glories that await thy name.
As that great seer, whose animating rod
Taught Jacob’s sons their wonder-working God,
Led far through dreary wastes the murmuring band,
And reacht the confines of their promised land,
Forbid to enter, but from Pisgah’s height,
On fruitful Canaan feasted long his sight;
View’d unborn nations from his labors blest,
Forgot his toils and sooth’d his soul to rest;
Thus o’er thy subject wave shalt thou behold
Far happier realms their future charms unfold,
In nobler pomp another Pisgah rise,
Beneath whose foot thy new found Canaan lies;
There, rapt in vision, hail my favorite clime,
And taste the blessings of remotest time.
So Hesper spoke; Columbus raised his head;
His chains dropt off; the cave, the castle fled.
Forth walkt the Pair; when steep before them stood,
A radiant track, a heaven-illumined road,
That through disparting shades arose on high,
Reacht o’er the hills and lengthen’d up the sky,
Show’d a clear summit, rich with rising flowers,
That breathe their odors through celestial bowers.
O’er the proud Pyrenees it looks sublime,
Subjects the Alps and levels Europe’s clime;
Spain, lessening to a chart, beneath it swims,
And shrouds her dungeons in the void she dims.
Led by the Power, the Hero gain’d the height,
New strength and brilliance flusht his mortal sight;
When calm before them flow’d the western main,
Far stretcht, immense, a sky-encircled plain.
No sail, no isle, no cloud invests the bound,
Nor billowy surge disturbs the vast profound;
Till, deep in distant heavens, the sun’s blue ray
Topt unknown cliffs and call’d them up to day;
Slow glimmering into sight wide regions drew,
And rose and brighten’d on the expanding view;
Fair sweep the waves, the lessening ocean smiles,
In misty radiance loom a thousand isles;
Near and more near the long drawn coasts arise,
Bays stretch their arms and mountains lift the skies,
The lakes unfolding point the streams their way,
Slopes, ridges, plains their spreading skirts display,
The vales branch forth, high walk approaching groves,
And all the majesty of nature moves.
O’er the wild hemisphere his glances fly,
Its form distending as it still draws nigh,
As all its salient sides force far their sway,
Crowd back the ocean and indent the day.
He saw, through central zones, the winding shore
Spread the deep gulf his sail had traced before,
The Darien isthmus check the raging tide,
Join distant lands and neighboring seas divide;
On either hand the shores unbounded bend,
Push wide their waves, to each dim pole ascend;
The two twin continents diverging rise,
Broad as the
