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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.

Western States: Prairies, The

The Prairie

By John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)

(From The Panorama)

BEYOND, the prairie’s sea-like swells surpass

The Tartar’s marvels of his Land of Grass,

Vast as the sky against whose sunset shores

Wave after wave the billowy greenness pours;

And, onward still, like islands in that main

Loom the rough peaks of many a mountain chain,

Whence east and west a thousand waters run

From winter lingering under summer’s sun.

And, still beyond, long lines of foam and sand

Tell where Pacific rolls his waves aland,

From many a wide-lapped port and land-locked bay,

Opening with thunderous pomp the world’s highway

To Indian isles of spice, and marts of far Cathay.

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