Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
Columbus and the Mayflower
By Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton (18091885)O
Sailedst from Palos one bright autumn morn,
Say, has old Ocean’s bosom ever borne
A freight of faith and hope to match with thine?
Such consummation of desire as shone
About Columbus when he rested on
The new-found world and married it to Spain?
Thou for whose destinies no kings looked out,
Nor sages to resolve some mighty doubt,—
Thou simple Mayflower of the salt-sea mead!
Gay flowers, bright birds, rich odors met thee not;
Stern Nature hailed thee to a sterner lot,—
God gave free earth and air, and gave no more.
Came empire such as Spaniard never knew,
Such empire as beseems the just and true;
And at the last, almost unsought, came gold.
Can guard that people’s heart, that nation’s health,
Safe on the perilous heights of power and wealth,
As in the straitness of the ancient ways.