Augustin S. Macdonald, comp. A Collection of Verse by California Poets. 1914.
By Bayard TaylorCalifornia
O
Of which our world can boast—
Whose guardian planet, evening’s silver star,
Illumes thy golden coast,—
Of savage beauty still!
How brought, O panther of the splendid hide,
To know thy master’s will!
In indolent repose;
Or pourest the crystal of a thousand rills
Down from thy house of snows.
The plowman drives his share,
And where, through cañons deep, thy streams are rolled,
The miner’s arm is bare.
A nobler seed shall be;
Mother of mighty men, thou shalt not mourn
Thy lost virginity!
Gone with thy fallen pines;
The wild, barbaric beauty of thy face
Shall round to classic lines.
Thy untamed energies;
And art and science, with their dreams superb,
Replace thine ancient ease.
Shall live in sculptures rare;
Thy native oak shall crown the sage’s brow—
Thy bay, the poet’s hair.
Thy valleys yield their oil;
And music, with her eloquence divine,
Persuade thy sons to toil.
No happier land shall see,
And earth shall find her old Arcadian dream
Restored again in thee!