The Pilgrim Fathers

By William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

The ship Mayflower, bearing the Pilgrims, sailed from Southampton, England, Sept. 6, 1620.

WELL worthy to be magnified are they

Who, with sad hearts, of friends and country took

A last farewell, their loved abodes forsook,

And hallowed ground in which their fathers lay;

Then to the new-found World explored their way,

That so a Church, unforced, uncalled to brook

Ritual restraints, within some sheltering nook

Her Lord might worship and His word obey

In freedom. Men they were who could not bend;

Blest Pilgrims, surely, as they took for guide

A will by sovereign Conscience sanctified;

Blest while their Spirits from the woods ascend

Along a Galaxy that knows no end,

But in His glory who for Sinners died.