Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
San Francisco
By Bret Harte (18361902)S
Thou sittest at the Western Gate;
Still slant the banners of the sun;
O Warder of two Continents!
Thy angry winds and sullen skies,
To thee, beside the Western Gate.
O lion’s whelp! that hidest fast
In jungle growth of spire and mast,
Thy hard high lust and wilful deed,
Of specious gifts material.
Her sceptic sneer, and all her pride.
Of her Franciscan Brotherhood.
With thy gray mantle cloak her shame!
Till morning bears her sins away.
The glory of her coming days;
Above her smoky argosies.
To stranger speech and newer face;
Lie hushed in the repose of years;
The sensual joys and meaner thrift,
Who watch and wait shall never see,—
Toiled fair or meanly in our place,—
Lie unrecorded and forgot.