William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907.
To the Virginian VoyageMichael Drayton (15631631)
Y
Worthy your country’s name,
That honour still pursue;
Go and subdue!
Whilst loitering hinds
Lurk here at home with shame:
Quickly aboard bestow you,
And with a merry gale
Swell your stretch’d sail
With vows as strong
As the winds that blow you.
West and by south forth keep!
Rocks, lee-shores, nor shoals
When Eolus scowls
You need not fear;
So absolute the deep.
Success you still entice
To get the pearl and gold,
And ours to hold
Virginia,
Earth’s only paradise.
Fowl, venison, and fish,
And the fruitfull’st soil
Without your toil
Three harvests more,
All greater than your wish.
Crowns with his purple mass
The cedar reaching high
To kiss the sky,
The cypress, pine,
And useful sassafras.
Still nature’s laws doth give,
No other cares attend,
But them to defend
From winter’s rage,
That long there doth not live.
Of that delicious land
Above the seas that flows
The clear wind throws,
Your hearts to swell
Approaching the dear strand;
(Thanks to God first given)
O you the happiest men,
Be frolic then!
Let cannons roar,
Frighting the wide heaven.
Such heroes bring ye forth
As those from whom we came;
And plant our name
Under that star
Not known unto our North.
Of laurel everywhere—
Apollo’s sacred tree—
You it may see
A poet’s brows
To crown, that may sing there.
Industrious Hakluyt,
Whose reading shall inflame
Men to seek fame,
And much commend
To after times thy wit.