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EL NUEVO MUNDO 
 
EL NUEVO MUNE)0: A POEM BY 
 LOUIS JAMES BLOCK: AUTHOR 
 OF DRAMATIC SKETCHES AND PO- 
 EMS. 
 
 U) Love thou thy land, with love far-brought 
 
 From out the storied Past, and used 
 Within the Present, but transfused 
 Thro' future time by power of thought. 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 3 3 
 33 3 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 
 CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY, 
 
 1893- 
 

 copyright, 1893, 
 By Louis James Block. 
 
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 Xraue bem lettenben ®ott uttb folge bem fdjtreigenben SBeltmeer! 
 
 Wax fie bod) tiid^t, fie ftieg je|t au§ ben Jjluttien empox, 
 Win bem @emu§ ftel^t bie ^atnx in etoigem SSunbe ; 
 
 SSa§ bie eine oerfprid^t, leiftet bie anbre Qtto\% ©filler. 
 
TO THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 I. 
 
 The century's unrelenting strength of quest 
 
 Has followed Thought through blossoms and through 
 
 weeds, 
 And found (men say) that every pathway leads 
 Into a cloudland where the footing prest 
 Is the insubsistence of a sea's unrest ; 
 
 An island in an ocean of mere dream, 
 The life which hoped a truest and a best, 
 Learns that the best and truest only seem ; 
 A bitter, helpless creed ! 
 No wonder-working deed 
 Can thence draw vigor which should surely stream 
 Through all its pulses, and its fire must deem 
 Itself a strange subversion of the law 
 Holding vague insecurity in awe ; 
 A luminous truth that truth is built on ignorance, 
 And Time's endeavor vast the dazzling gift of chance ! 
 
 II. 
 
 Nay, we are not deceived ; no lampless night 
 
 Glooms round the world and hope with its despair; 
 Thought winged rises into regions fair 
 
 Where is the dominant, all-transfiguring light ; 
 
 Faith has revealed the heart of Love aright 
 
 9 
 
10 EL NUEVO MUNDO 
 
 That beats through history's tempest and its roar, 
 The felt decadence of the selfless might 
 Sweeps from the skies the cloud-heaps more and more ; 
 Who now shall further doubt 
 That a most dismal rout 
 "Waits the dull fears, whose threatenings loud and sore, 
 With bannered hosts, against our temples bore? 
 Unshattered on the Heavenward-looking hill 
 The marble splendor fronts the sunrise still ; 
 The blue-eyed Goddess smiles and turns her unveiled shield 
 Upon the invading bands, who strew the smoking field. 
 
 in. 
 
 Yet progress has been devious and slow : 
 The Spirit sometimes has been out of breath 
 And pale unto the very verge of death ; 
 Fierce as the mountain torrent's sudden flow, 
 Erratic as the wildest winds that blow, 
 
 The movement oft has seemed to rush and fall 
 Down steeps and crags where safety might not go ; 
 Then the swift stream has made a sharp recall 
 Into its truer bed, 
 And by some influence led 
 That keeps its foam-flecked waves in juster thrall, 
 Has bounded forward to the longed-for hall. 
 Windy and large, with changing sky, and free. 
 The waters' end and aim, the brilliant sea; 
 So hope, the sea-gull, lifts his more adventurous wings, 
 Lured by the flaming sun wherewith the wide world sings. 
 
EL NUEVO MUNDO 11 
 
 IV. 
 
 Some clear-eyed angel must have watched and tended 
 The growths of love and patience in the heart, 
 Some wisdom guarded with divinest art 
 Gentleness, faith, and sweet assurance, blended 
 Into a dream which saw the storm transcended ; 
 Chief wonder that such fragile blooms survived 
 Amid the conflict seemingly never ended, 
 Chief miracle that they none the less contrived 
 To taste the finer air 
 Which is their daily fare ; 
 Securely in the rudest bosom hived. 
 And from the sternest gloom and rage revived, 
 Their very slightness gave them strength to gain 
 Gradual possession of the changed domain ; 
 For they are of the tribe which toil and strive the best 
 When they are needed most and days are dismalest. 
 
 V. 
 
 Love felt the bitterness in those ancient days, 
 Being forced to mask as passion base and rude, 
 And mother of a fierce and brawling brood, 
 
 Hatreds that used the noonday's sovereign blaze 
 
 To lamp man further on destruction's ways ; 
 Yet even then Love knew to claim and charm, 
 
 And hold the impregnable and awless gaze; 
 Amid the wanton revelry of harm 
 Arose the prophetess 
 Touched by God's own caress. 
 And led the clan in hours of dire alarm ; 
 
12 EL hlUEVO MUNDO 
 
 So woman's weak and terrorless right arm 
 Pointed the pathway men were glad to take, 
 And then as now her words were strong to wake 
 The trembling higher moods, that slowly came to win 
 The place of gradual rule and power the soul within. 
 
 VI. 
 
 But Love was lured by glamour of delight 
 Into forgetfulness of loftier aims, 
 And sank to depths that were not unlike shame's ; 
 Set in a paradise of softest might, 
 And lulled in dreams that made the heavens a slight 
 
 And empty thing to lose, weighed in the scale 
 With sense imperial, and suffused aright 
 With the refined and subtly sweet avail, 
 The hours wore on apace. 
 Touching with hands that lace 
 And part in a strange dance's measured pale, 
 And pleasure said at heart its faint All hail! 
 Lest too loud speaking should evoke the death ^ 
 
 Which must wait on such perilous charmed breath ; 
 Shut in these mist-built walls the world's strength feminine 
 Slumbered, but knew in visions that its sleep was sin. 
 
 vn. 
 
 Could the imprisonment last? Nay, warrior queens 
 Threw the frail chains from off them like clear dew 
 Shed from the flank of lioness when new 
 
 The sanguine sunrise bursts the leafy screens ; 
 
EL hlUEVO MUNDO 13 
 
 Or radiant motherhood pre-eminent leans 
 From its enforced seclusion and requires 
 Room for the growth whose dear supremacy weans 
 From base subjection to unleashed desires ; 
 Or the lithe sorceress 
 With eyes of wild excess 
 Warmed her ambitions at great empire's fires ; 
 Or the loud triumphs of impassioned lyres, 
 Mixed with low wailings of a life suppressed, 
 Floated across the time like foam on crest 
 Of fluctuant waters or a meteor's lingering track. 
 Paling the stars themselves, over night's depth of black. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 The masculine might of will arose supreme 
 In the white mid of heaven ; now womanhood. 
 Co-equal, potent, fair, beside him stood. 
 No mistress and no daughter, some bright dream 
 Of golden wisdom, or a vague foregleam 
 
 Of love's own pureness, but that love's great whole 
 That wisdom's rich and self-concentred stream. 
 Having known grief and ruler of the soul ; 
 A new life was begun, 
 Lit by that female sun, 
 Wherewith earth thrilled from its stern pole to pole, 
 As hope sweeps through the reaches of the soul ; 
 The future spoke unto the present pale, 
 The new light overflowed the horizon's veil. 
 The dominations barbarous of the twilight heard 
 Above them sound the rumor of their dooming word. 
 
14 EL NUEVO MUNDO 
 
 IX. 
 
 Two equal powers in all life's separate spheres, 
 .Two streams of Influence working out the good, 
 Two infinite forms of potent servanthood. 
 Two strengths arrayed against dark doubts and fears, 
 The feeling whose fine clearness knows and hears, 
 The intelligence that is sweet warmth and glow, 
 The instinct whose forthrightness never veers. 
 The thought which pierces thorough sense and show, 
 With freedom everywhere 
 To build the high and fair. 
 Each being rich soil for other's hand to sow, 
 And inner space where nobler harvests grow, 
 Life's centre found in each and outer rim 
 Reaching beyond the stars most distant-dim, 
 Until the end is gained where temporal difference 
 Fades in the light of heaven, supreme, unstained, intense. 
 
 X. 
 
 O Western World ! what the long strain and toil 
 Of the great periods have wrought and won 
 Leaves unto you a labor but begun ; 
 
 Here is the land of promised wine and oil. 
 
 Here is the State which many failures soil 
 Incarnated anew and strong once more. 
 
 Alert, high-hearted, and equipped to foil 
 The dangers that confront us with their roar; 
 Here is the land of gold 
 Which wise men seek to hold, 
 
EL NUEf^O MUNDO 15 
 
 Not gold whose heapings mock with longing sore. 
 But purer metal which for helmet wore 
 And shield the brave who saw and loved the right, 
 And were suffused with eager conquest's might ; 
 O golden land of ours ! Arise and strive to be. 
 Time's purposes attained. Freedom and Victory! 
 
I. 
 
 THE OLD WORLD. 
 
 In the great morning of the world, 
 The Spirit of God with might unfurled 
 The flag of Freedom over Chaos, 
 
 And all its banded anarchs fled , 
 Like vultures frighted from Imaus 
 
 Before an earthquake's tread. 
 
 SHELLEY 
 
THE OLD IVORLD 
 
 * 
 
 I. 
 
 God's Thought rose clear before him and he said : 
 '*Lo ! I will fashion for mine eyes to see 
 The mighty miracle of Liberty ; 
 Unto my will shall many wills be wed, 
 With mine own life shall lesser lives be fed, 
 
 With mine own being filled and wondrous fire, 
 The increasing light by which all hearts are led 
 Unto the summit of supreme desire ; 
 
 From glowering suns and stars, 
 From elemental wars, 
 From interflux of powers and savage ire 
 That bid the engirding night pause and admire. 
 From anguish and despair, the wordless brood 
 That haunt the expanse of forests primal-rude, 
 I will bring forth that mine unenvying soul may know^ 
 The lofty love wherewith but Freedom's self can glow." 
 
 n. 
 
 Then forth into the night a tumult spread. 
 The fierce contentions of contrarious powers, 
 And loud the noise was of the risen hours. 
 
 And each one on the lust of battle fed, 
 
20 EL NUEVO MUNDO 
 
 And life seemed with the horror stricken dead ; 
 
 Then crescent, pale, mysteriously born, 
 Like a low word divinely breathed and said, 
 Light rose on the abyss whose ravenous scorn 
 Lay soothed into a smile. 
 And slowly perished while 
 The blue skies rose above, and overworn 
 The void gave way where earths with many a horn 
 And curving gulf held back the seething waves. 
 And mastered them ajid ruled them as the slaves 
 Of large intents to come, and grasses clothed the rocks 
 And blossoms burned amid in softly colored flocks. 
 
 m. 
 
 So shone the glory of the sun and night 
 Became resplendent with her stars and moon, 
 And life began to tremble Tvhere its boon 
 Had fallen on silence, and the morn's firm light 
 Broke its strange trance, and into joy and sight 
 
 Burst the quick dance of ^^ondrous sensitive things. 
 And seas were peopled with vast forms of might, 
 And in the trees a myriad music rings. 
 And the untimorous sod 
 By manifold shapes was trod, 
 And lo ! in forest deep, beside clear springs, 
 And on the mountains sides where each wind sings, 
 Beneath the skies where gold clouds rose and fled, 
 Like breaths of bliss when hope and aim are wed, 
 While expectation knew how far the miracle ran 
 Beyond its farthest, came the consummation, Man. 
 
EL NUEVO MUNDO 21 
 
 IV. 
 
 In the cold dusk of caverns and by Tvaves 
 Of inland waters or on Island shores 
 Roared and tumulted the first reinless wars 
 Of nameless und unnumbered tribes ; fierce slaves 
 Of bitter passion and the fear which graves 
 Its horror deep upon the heart, and makes 
 The world a vast impendence whose gloom laves 
 Half lamplessly ; for no sharp lightning breaks 
 It save ghost newly fled 
 Into lands of the dead, 
 Capricious answer giving for their wild sakes 
 Who raise loud-ringing prayers like sea that breaks 
 Upon a rock-bound shore with noisy foam ; 
 Pain drives them forth from wasted home to home, 
 And fashions serpents, rocks, or trees into a god 
 Of potenced nothingness, a mind-created rod. 
 
 V. 
 
 But the brave sun arose in kinglihead 
 
 From darkness of the night and men looked forth 
 
 And saw his hand in blessing laid from north 
 To kindlier south, and their s wift longing sped 
 About his footsteps ; so their watchings bred 
 
 Hopes of emerging from their deeps of pain, 
 Unto a lustrous height of being led, 
 
 And noble zenith of unshattered gain.; 
 They gladly saw the sway 
 Of heroes, and the day 
 
 Of gradual peace began to shine and reign, 
 
22 EL hJUEVO MUNDO 
 
 And faith to purge itself of earth-born stain; 
 Then through the vales the herds began to pass 
 
 Where the sweet waters wet the thickening grass, 
 
 And round the loftier dwelling of the chief and king 
 
 Rose hum of toilers and the voice of maids who sing. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The restless thought with inner fire aflame, 
 Like lamp soft glowing through its rosy screen, 
 Illumed again ^vbat eager eyes had seen, 
 And deeper toil of spirit strove to frame 
 Anew its large possessions and lay claim 
 
 Upon a broad demesne that bloomed and shone 
 Before it, a miraculous realm to tame. 
 Above the outer one of grief and moan ; 
 The silver dreams that throng 
 Give birth to wondrous song. 
 To myth and story winged with rhythmic tone, 
 And hopes that are the very spirit's own ; 
 Whence flow a greater mastery and skill 
 Which hold the tribes in friendlier chain and will, 
 And bind in golden sheaves what has been sought and done 
 And are the presage of the height already won. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Then order rose beside the calm-waved sea. 
 First subsidence of the submerging fate, 
 A mighty people and a kingdom great, 
 
 Homaging strength of glorious ancestry. 
 
 Their king was father ; his wise empery 
 
EL NUEyO MUNDO 23 
 
 Ensouled his subjects and confirmed their deed, 
 So that they grew and wove for men to be 
 A fabric of observance where the need 
 Of worship of the law 
 Stood forth in perfect awe; 
 A noble issue with the power to breed 
 The thoughts that who would live must know and read ; 
 Their seer, Confucius, spoke such words to men 
 As have not ceased their sounding, denizen 
 Of the high heaven of meek obedience, leader sure 
 Into the land of peace which shall at last endure. 
 
 vm. 
 
 Under the fervid skies, and mid the growth 
 Of tangled forests where the mountains vast 
 Circle the shaded glens, a gloomy past 
 Enwraps a nobler people ; ever loth 
 To grasp the present firmly, seeing both 
 
 The worlds of earth and heaven in mist of dreams 
 Enrobed and mingled, they seemed bound by oath 
 Of high allegiance to the One who gleams 
 Recedingly on the gaze 
 Turned Him wards ; by what ways 
 Of severence from the body, down what streams 
 Of anguish did they seek Him ; the land teems , 
 "With monstrous shapes and visions that enthrall ; 
 And chiefly thee, O Buddh, the foiled ones call 
 Savior and friend, thee clothed in contemplation's rest. 
 And finding loss of all and nothingness the best. 
 
24 EL NUE^O MUNDO 
 
 IX. 
 
 Forth came the sun of Persia, worshippers 
 Of golden fires warring upon the dark, 
 And dimly conscious of the answering spark 
 That lights each heart with dream of truth, and errs 
 Not in such dreaming ; lofty characters 
 
 Of fixfed purpose to bear unto men, 
 Despite the frowning hindrance which deters, 
 The glow of spirit trembling back again 
 Unto the sovereign splendor. 
 As star is star's attender ; 
 The soldier people rose from rocky glen 
 And rivered plain, and earth was gladdened when 
 Their victories brought the myriad tribes to be 
 The children of the flame whose leaping free 
 And wind-souled bounding skywards it was joy to make 
 A symbol of the hope that burns for all men's sake. 
 
 X. 
 
 Beside the inland deep whose blue-waved flow 
 Makes path dividUous unto luring realms. 
 That visioned speed the flight of fearless helms 
 
 Breaking through veils of distance, whither go 
 
 The race's hopes, which dimly seem to know 
 The fate of freedom showing like a sun 
 
 On the sky's verge, where luminous mists rise slow, 
 Dispersing from before the blaze begun, 
 The heroic sailor land 
 Uplifts her puissant hand ; 
 Lo ! white-sailed commerce bids her mariners shun 
 
EL NUEVO MUNDO 25 
 
 No vague far water-ways, nor leave undone 
 A toil that wrests lands from the weltering seas ; 
 Brave like her god, much toiling Hercules, 
 And finding even pain a mystery of the heart 
 Disclosing devious paths of conquest's peerleess art. 
 
 XI. 
 
 O wondrous people of the tortured fate, 
 People grown strong with very sight of God, 
 Strong to make live your stormy period 
 In the wide soul of earth forever, hate 
 And dark despair upon your footsteps wait 
 For weary centuries ; giving God to man, 
 Revealing the sure mean to dissipate 
 The bitterness of woes that rose and span 
 A mist of fear around him 
 Age-long that held and bound him, 
 Ye failed in your own destiny and wan 
 A gloomy severance from the hope that ran 
 Like a swift bearer of the brilliant torch 
 Before you ; now within the thronged porch 
 Of the white temple of the future ye too stand 
 And your own God will ope and answer your demand. 
 
 xn. 
 
 What looms against the purple air, white flame 
 Of stone that seems to climb and to aspire. 
 The winged thing of manifold desire 
 Before it, brooding and depressed "with shame, 
 The dumb eyes sad with question and the blame 
 
26 EL hJUEVO MUNDO 
 
 Of sore defeat? has Heaven no answer fit? 
 Lo ! the soul waits, judged and set free to claim 
 Its guerdon, in the citadel, unlit 
 By lamp of any hope. 
 And lingering out the scope 
 Of its great longing ; near the temple sit 
 Memnonian figures and the walls are writ 
 With scrolls of ancient days, but through the aisles 
 Oppression hovers and the voiceless piles 
 Answer not anything and toward the silver sea 
 The dreaming land looks whence the wished response must be. 
 
 xin. 
 
 In after days, O dim-eyed Orient, 
 Your countless armies crossed the wind-swept straits' 
 And shook the soil where fearless Freedom waits 
 Your foiled attack, backwards you fied forespent 
 And baffled in your mighty world-intent ; 
 
 Your eyes were wan with pallid dreams and dreads, 
 Your footsteps faltered on the ways besprent 
 With battle's wreck, and the imperial heads 
 Of Europe's leaders young 
 Upon your dazed sight sprung, 
 And your vast half-thoughts sunk into the beds 
 Of world-remembrances, the potent dead's 
 Last influx into life's new golden bloom ; 
 You could not rend the heavy primitive doom 
 That swathed you and the fire of soul and joined God 
 Burst on the plains which beaten hordes of yours had trod. 
 
EL NUEFO MUNDO 27 
 
 XIV. 
 
 O land most radiant of the ancient world, 
 Which burst the troubled dream wherein time lay, 
 And shone the crimson dawn of very day 
 And life arisen in fields with dew impearled, 
 And over which the vanishing vapors curled. 
 
 Uncovering: the sky and mounting sun, 
 Before you fear and wrath swept downward whirled 
 To deeps of the abysses unbegun ; 
 
 Freedom awoke with Greece, 
 And violet-crownfed peace; 
 The soul was born and thought's first victory won, 
 God stood in manhood's guise, and theforedone 
 Base monsters of the ancient dread and terror 
 Sank backwards from their pride of height and error. 
 Being made subservient to the splendid dance of Love 
 And Beauty, come to earth from realms of Powers above. 
 
 XV. 
 
 Unto world-conquest you marched forth, O Rome, 
 Grandest of powers in the long roll of time, 
 And shaper of the commonweal sublime 
 
 In which all peoples found a place and home ; 
 
 You knew with your firm legions on to roam 
 And bind more wonderful than theirs a law 
 
 Upon the toiling kingdoms ; in the tome 
 Of God's own strength your searching insight saw 
 A form of dominance 
 That held your charmed glance; 
 
28 EL NUEl^O MUNDO 
 
 And long as sovereignty kept close your awe 
 Set on man's right to build, bereft of flaw, 
 His inner life of choice into brave sight 
 Of majesty and rule and visible might, 
 The world was all your own ; deepener of thought to will, 
 Although your own hand slew you, j^et you rule earth still. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Next rose the star of wonder in the east, 
 And wise and lowly came to worship where 
 The babe lay in the manger ; light more fair 
 And from diviner realms led to the feast 
 Which welcomed chief the one who came as least; 
 
 Earth's monarchies and national gods 
 Trembled upon their thrones, and day increased 
 With passing of the worn-out periods ; 
 The realm of the within 
 Was opened, and the din 
 Of outer pomp fell with the lictor's rods ; 
 From the great forest's moist and sun-flecked sods 
 Swept the blue-eyed renewer and for him 
 God rose in spirit and truth ; the Orient dim 
 Clasped hands with sun-souled Greece, and knowledge of the 
 
 soul 
 Glowed on the peoples as their life's supremest goal, 
 
 XVII. 
 
 The time lay weltering in mere shame and fear, 
 Monstrous with hopelessness and strange self-scorn 
 Whence every form of wild desire was born, 
 
EL NUEVO MUNDO 39 
 
 And passions that fulfillment made more drear. 
 There was but one huge empire, and the near 
 
 Self-slaughter in its dead f orgetfulness 
 Of elder purposes made it appear 
 Mere evanescence into space ; to bless 
 The uncharactered vastitude 
 And pour life fierce-renewed 
 Into that chaos of world-wide distress, 
 And cleanse with storm for touch of God's caress 
 Upon his children's forehead, burst and ran 
 The foaming hordes of the barbarian, 
 And power again ensouled with what must surely be 
 Saw freedom's sun cloud-burdened risen above the sea. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Sure inwardness and self-unfolding thought, 
 Spirit's fine motions in each struggling heart. 
 The Avhole of life resurgent in the part, 
 Were new achievements ; truth within was brought 
 Unto a growing vivid radiance wrought 
 
 By troubled flight from the mere tangible ; 
 Pulsings of soul the old world never sought, 
 And nobler governance of holier will, 
 The blonde-haired Northener 
 Felt in him start and stir, 
 Whence bloom transformed the meadow and the hill, 
 Which deeper carols of the poets thrill ; 
 The lands which had been savagely estranged 
 Once more in brief bright unity were ranged ; 
 They had gone, through sad years, yet into every man 
 Entered a love wherewith his blood more freely ran. 
 
30 EL NUE^O MUNDO 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Mistress of realms celestial, and the spouse 
 Of God himself, bride of the heavenly King, 
 Whose solacing song your magic lips made ring 
 Above the weary peoples, to your house 
 Of comfort which the time half disallows, 
 
 And your hand's patient touch and dominance, 
 Fled the world-hunted and sin-branded brows 
 And gathered light from your uplifting glance. 
 O founded on God's rock, 
 And shepherdess of the flock, 
 Who looked for calm amid the whirl and chance 
 Of evil days. O Church, who saw advance 
 The slow sun up the higher-stretching skies. 
 Until power wooed you with his glozing lies, 
 You held the sacred keys, and your conviction turned 
 The wheel of progress and with truth your deep eyes burned. 
 
 XX. 
 
 A sovereign rose, whose wise unfaltering hand 
 Laid hold upon the tempest and the urge 
 Of unbound passions, and within the verge 
 
 Of careful potence bade them furl, expand, 
 
 As listed him ; not long the roar unmanned 
 Waited when death gave him a grave too deep 
 
 For hopes that Charlemagne with brief breath fanned 
 Into a sudden flame ; on toward the steep 
 Sea of mad conflict bore 
 The undiscernings sore ; 
 
EL hlUEVO MUNDO 31 
 
 Sheeer lawlessness erected tower and keep 
 Above the fields where blinded slaveries weep, 
 And puny trembling monarchs drank the breath 
 Of rule empoisoned with the smell of death ; 
 Pale peace fled from the earth save where her lovers shun 
 The storm within the church's anthemed orison. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 But heaven is never starless, and the moon 
 Lifts up her silver face from boding cloud 
 That hides but ill her splendor with the shroud 
 Of storm and battle ; surer comes the boon 
 Of high self-conquest, and the mystic rune 
 
 Of freedom won from mid of fear and hate 
 Shines clearer on men's brows ; forth late or soon, 
 And rising far above the bitter fate 
 That dominates the age 
 Glooming its every page. 
 The errant knights fare forth and lie in wait 
 To force vile tyrannies from heights elate ; 
 They see pure Love ^thin the heaven of thought. 
 Fashioned of gentle hopes, with dreamings wrought : 
 Queen of the life and hearts that Tvorship at her shrine, 
 She lifts her eyes and guides them unto deeds divine. 
 
 xxn. 
 
 Again the awakened East had risen as erst 
 In hours forgotten, and the conquering march 
 Of arms Arabian underneath the arch 
 
 Of many a sky had passed ; their fervor burst 
 
32 EL NUEVO MUNDO 
 
 Their native deserts, and their worship nurst 
 
 The hope of bringing back unto the One, 
 TVhom they named God, the peoples now immerst 
 In giant tasks ; but vain the victory won, 
 And vain their prophet's call ; 
 Against their kingdoms fall 
 The Westerners who scorn their toils foredone, 
 And beauty risen beneath their regnant sun ; 
 As in the days of the far older time 
 The Orient reels back shattered, and the clime 
 Of Europe knows them but as sombre scudding rack 
 That winds drive from before the light's sky-cleaving track. 
 
 xxm. 
 
 So was the West triumphant, and the gold 
 Of growing light was conqueror of the storm 
 Which had beset its dawn with gloom enorme ; 
 The heaving billows of the conflict rolled 
 Soothed by the splendor, and the hunted fold 
 
 Of night unseasonable fled on before ; 
 The heart's deep ^isionings became more bold 
 And turned unto the sacred land which bore 
 Love basely filleted 
 And even mocked when dead ; 
 Should they not gain the tomb ? thus more and more 
 The life of man as one began to soar 
 Before their gazings, and the memoried East 
 Awoke new purpose, which grew and increased 
 So that the bitter march was full of rich avail 
 And truth again came sweeping down the orient gale. 
 
EL NUEVO MUNDO 83 
 
 xxrv. 
 
 Nor does high wisdom linger ; knowledge grows 
 To more imperial potence and the soul 
 Sees heaven's great realms before it float and roll, 
 Centering in the pure passion-glowing rose 
 Before God's throne ; whiter than sifted snows 
 Love rules one heart with purpose clearer far 
 Than old Greece thrilled with, and his rapt song flows 
 From the time's depths, more silvern than the star 
 That lights the violet sky- 
 Before the dayspring's eye 
 Takes to itself its lucence and the war 
 With night hath one more victory, scimetar 
 Made for the ages' hand, and fashioned well 
 Of prayer and anguish and divinest spell, 
 Slaying the beast within the man and hewing way 
 To where Beatrice's eyes are pursuivants of day. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 As from the flawless stone the mighty limbs 
 And sun-turned face disclose from day to day 
 Their loosening glory, and the shadows play 
 
 Beneath wide eyes wherein the joyous hymns 
 
 Of wakening life lie silent, interims 
 Of loveliness and strength to hold subdued 
 
 Worship forever, being imaged thought which swims 
 Upon the sense with rapture still renewed, 
 So from the whelm and toss 
 Of aims that strive and cross 
 
34 EL hlUEVO MUNDO 
 
 The Nation rears its forehead, and imbued 
 With heart to vanquish difference and feud 
 Reveals a power superb, that is to set 
 On the expectant world a coronet 
 And sign of coming peace, and Freedom is the name 
 The gi-eat birth bears, though vaguely known and sad with 
 blame. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 Earth grew more beautiful and human life 
 Swept on more nobly ; dreams of seer and saint 
 Gave way to joys that held without complaint 
 Their revelries within the present ; strife 
 Yet roars in madness where the hordes are rife 
 Who pour from mythic Asia's soundless deeps, 
 And thrust anew the rude barbaric knife 
 At city's throat Tvhere ancient learning weeps 
 Because of evil days ; 
 So toward the "western ways 
 Greece once more bears her quenchless torch, and steeps 
 In goldener light, and re-enthronM keeps 
 Her inexhausted regnance, that is sure 
 As the great stars above and must endure, 
 Being part of truth eternal and the pauseless strength 
 Which shall bring all mankind into its calm at length. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 The golden belted bees that hum within 
 The honey-hearted flowers of pleasure fed 
 The soul ^"ith strange delights, and sorcerous led 
 
EL NUBVO MUNDO 35 
 
 Her feet on poisonous paths of passion ; yet to Tvin 
 The beauty, which, born of the sun, had been 
 The young' world's longing, and to see anew 
 The whole of life, its triumph, love and sin, 
 Statued or risen in towers or morned to view 
 In unsurpassable splendor 
 Of colors fierce or tender, 
 Became the time's desire ; then soft winds blew 
 Fraught with a lighter perfume, clearer dew, 
 From long unvisited realms of Poesy; 
 Birds of fresh joys sang in the new-leaved tree 
 Of living disenthralled from gloom of prisoning dreams, 
 And man walked forth beside the sky-reflecting streams. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 Heart of the world and mystery of time. 
 Eyesight and life for which the pageant moves. 
 Freedom, for whose fair sake adown the grooves 
 Of ringing change from heavj-^ slumberous prime 
 Unto thought's latter all- transpicuous clime. 
 
 The toil and struggle of mankind have gone ! 
 Your %teps have been amid the heat and rime 
 Of nature's tumult, and the haggard wan 
 Despair of history, 
 Lessening in sIoav degree 
 As you emerged in your own light and on 
 The hills of conquest glittered paragon ! 
 O mirror sending back to heavenly povrers 
 Their imaged loveliness and crowned v^nth flowers! 
 O unity of lands, the morning of your day 
 Flashes across the verge, and holds the night at ba3' ! 
 
36 EL NUE^O MUNDO 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 The mountains rose benignant and the sea 
 Clung- to its shores with lingering lover's lips ; 
 The world of trees and blooms sprang from eclipse 
 And smiled as never in the past ; to be 
 Thought's painted veil and wizardry 
 
 Of outer where all dreams are shown and glassed 
 Was felt as nature's part of life ; and free, 
 His splendors equally around him cast, 
 The sun uprist on high, 
 Center of worlds that vie 
 In happy worship ; men knew clear at last 
 The need of firm obedience and their vast 
 Divisions sought to close and fall in tune; 
 The night with blossom-stars or plenilune, 
 The day with sun amidmost of the curving skies, 
 Held the fair earth as love in arms of lover lies. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 The torch of thought gleamed on the cavemed rocks, 
 And earth made bare her heart ; no smallest thing 
 But held the secret wherewith planets ring 
 
 And make the music that enfolds and locks 
 
 The universe in its embrace ; the mocks 
 Of elders, eye-bound Avith dead loves and hopes, 
 
 Fled in the winds of search hke colored flocks 
 Of leaves at autumn-tide ; time's horoscopes 
 Were prescient of resolve 
 And effort that revolve 
 The reborn planet : fetters and old ropes 
 Of dim opinion fell, weak as mere tropes 
 
EL NUEVO MUNDO 37 
 
 Of sounding sophistries, when urgent liours / 
 Arouse the soul of man with all its powers, 
 When voice of prophet calls the wandering feet and brains 
 Back to the needed toil on ever-harvested plans. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 One deep intention held the restless soul 
 Of all the period, shook it with vague thrill 
 Of grand success, nerved its converging will 
 Unto sheer fearlessness, and held the whole 
 White-heated fervor bound unto the pole 
 
 Of a great action ; star that rose to guide 
 The impetuous endeavor to the goal 
 For which the unwearied centuries fleet and ride 
 The tempest-peopled sea 
 Was search for land where tree 
 Of Freedom might grow surely and abide 
 The hour whose striking had been long denied. 
 Firm in the heart of men and impulse strong 
 Was need to grasp the earth and to prolong 
 Their nobler life about its curving sides, absorb • 
 Its spherM secret, and command the obedient orb. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 Then Freedom might forever build its home 
 Upon that conquest, and the very stars 
 Rising from out the infinite dark thrust bars 
 Away from their best knowing, and the dome 
 Of heaven hold no more mystery, and to roam 
 From light to light of gradual truth become 
 
38- EL UUEyO MUNDO 
 
 The joy of search, feeling on brow the foam 
 And wind of thought's great ocean where the dumb 
 Forth-reachings of the past 
 Fruition find at last ; 
 One orb being solved, the distant maze and hum 
 Of worlds whose multitude had dared to numb 
 The earlier gropings rise in ordered song, 
 Repeating the one story ; from the strong 
 Desire of the great ages leaps divine and mild 
 The longed-for, mild-eyed goddess, Fate's Fate-slaying child ! 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 Also the truth that filled the restless mind 
 Of the rapt seeker found a dwelling place 
 Which should repel time's maliQe, face to face 
 With old discoveries bring all human kind. 
 Hold wisest memories safe and imresigned 
 
 From regent purpose, cast the miracle far 
 Of budding knowledges like seed confined 
 In fruitful soil breaking in bloom as star 
 Is clad with silver light 
 To wage war on the night 
 And conquer, burst the imprisoning bond and bar 
 Of glooms that sought to hold the soul and mar. 
 And build a realm where men's jnst dreams might tread 
 And know their strength and bliss of kinglihead ; 
 This too was granted them ; behold in hall and nook 
 Of simpler life, yea everywhere, the charmed book ! 
 
EL NUEl^O MUNDO 39 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 Voyagings forth to the east and wonder-tales 
 Of golden monarchs in clime-favored lands ! 
 The western ocean licks its sparkling sands 
 With tongues of promise ; round the globed earth sails 
 Wide forethought fearless ; all the eastern gales 
 Fraught with the glow of story waft the oars 
 On westward paths unto the rose-brimmed A^ales 
 Whither quick fancy lifts its wings and soars ; 
 Upon one soul more high 
 Than the ensphering sky, 
 One heart great to include hope's boundless shores, 
 And prophecy's divinely fashioned lores, 
 Rose the entrancing vision ; presage he 
 Of wonders and achievements yet to be ; 
 Into the vasty dark his ship pursued its way. 
 Secure that westward was the spring of man's bright day! 
 
II. 
 
 THE MAN. 
 
 The sun set, but set not his hope; 
 Stars rose; his faith was earlier up; 
 Fixed on the enormous galaxy, 
 Deeper and older seemed his eye; 
 And matched his sufferance sublime 
 The taciturnity of time. 
 
 EMERSON, 
 
THE MAN. 
 
 I. 
 
 Who kno^^s the secret of the sunrise ? who 
 Shall say what splendor of the exhaustless sun 
 Across the sombre waiting skies shall run? 
 Who knows the point from which the first wind blew 
 That brought the hidden sky again to view ? 
 
 On what far tip of Ocean's many waves 
 Fell the first moonbeam ? or what drop of dew 
 Hid first amid the rose's petals, slaves 
 To the sweet dream of love 
 Her coming forth hath wove ? 
 What edge of storm struck first the trembling knaves 
 Who king earth's follies, and what yawn of graves 
 Oped first to enclose them from the lightning stroke 
 Fallen and quivering? or what first ray broke 
 From what far heavens to shine within the hearts of men 
 And bring them back to life and truth and joy again? 
 
 n. 
 
 Surely the ages climb unto the Deed ! 
 Beneath the sod the slow seed bursts and toils, 
 The laboring spirit laughs at vain recoils 
 
44 EL hlUEyO MUNDO 
 
 On its intention ; still the patient need 
 Moulds the great world and bids arise, exceed, 
 
 The light that darkling lay amid dense scorn ; 
 Denials perish of its right to lead 
 To spaces where its glow increased to morn 
 Is promise of the day 
 Having the word to say 
 Which leaves old crimes dissea.ted and forlorn, 
 While faith resurgent in the just is born ; 
 As the earth's rivers flow" unto the sea, 
 Time's unseen tides unto the yet to be, 
 So might and things and life speed to the centre where 
 The new achievement leaps forth to the sun and air. 
 
 III. 
 
 Deep in one heart the fateful future bides, 
 A point of expectation and of thought. 
 Which have this frail and slender vessel wrought 
 For their enswathement ; his the dream that rides 
 Into the haven where its storm-swept sides 
 
 May wreathe themselves in flowers of triumph won ; 
 Deep in his soul the new evangel hides 
 Toward which the confluent streams of hope have run 
 Since light was on the sea 
 Where his great task should be ; 
 Upon that suffering head the winds maj^ beat 
 Whitening his locks, and the unwearying feet 
 May tread the ways of failure, and his eyes 
 May see through tears morn after morn arise. 
 But all the stars of heaven and the sun's swiftest fires 
 Bring on the hour which shall respond to his desires. 
 
EL NUEVO MUNDO 45 
 
 IV. 
 
 Italia ! with full hands you have ever come 
 Unto the feast of nations, rise once more, 
 Be your grand self that all men may adore; 
 Your cry of war in olden days struck dumb 
 The dwellers of the farthest earth ; your sum 
 Of glories made a crown for your fair brow 
 Which was the light of law and masterdom 
 Burning within our house of rule even now ; 
 Your Church's holy flame 
 Made clear the sacred name 
 When darkness held the lands ; later your vow 
 Unto high beauty led you to endow 
 The joy of men with its best heritage 
 Of picture and of marble ; and your rage 
 Of large beneficence had not completely won 
 Its height of giving had you urged not forth your son 
 
 V. 
 
 To find the newer world far in the west 
 Toward which some instinct in the heart of man 
 Had pointed since the flow of time began ; 
 
 The brooding boy beside your waves sat blest 
 
 In a large dream of earth's alluring best, 
 A forefeel of the way his ships must go, 
 
 Borne on the treacherou^s subsidence and crest 
 Into the light that later eyes should know ; 
 Within him burned and thrilled 
 The purposes world-willed 
 
46 EL NUEVO MUNDO 
 
 For which all skies are globed and all winds blow ; 
 Son of a sailor-city and the foe 
 Of whatso night hung over distant seas 
 And hid frwn sight uncaptived lands and leas, 
 His thought surged far and high and gazed upon of stars 
 Virginal, which beaconed him from forth their speeding cars. 
 
 VI. 
 
 What the great halls of learning told his soul 
 
 Of mystic project and alert command, 
 
 The golden memories of sighted land 
 By ancient wanderers on the toss and roll 
 
 Of half forgotten waves, what murmuring stole 
 
 Upon him of the vaguely-looming fate 
 
 That was to be his anguish and his goal, 
 
 Found in him the resolve whose form and date 
 
 Are not the fruit of time 
 
 And grow within a clime 
 
 Which has heaven's smile for sky ; calmly he sate 
 
 And what was kin unto that mood and mate 
 
 Came to his hand and gave its message up, 
 
 As one drinks wine from out a jeweled cup. 
 
 And he went forth strong in the truth and firmly bent 
 
 To search for lore of the far realm where'er he went. 
 
 VII. 
 
 The sea knew well her master ; from her came 
 A voice of urgence and a cry that stung 
 His heart to answer and about him clung 
 
 A host of visionings that roused to flame 
 
EL NUEl^O MUNDO 47 
 
 His sense of kingshij) ; his the hand to tame 
 
 Her wild iipleapings, make her bear the yoke, 
 And fa^vn about the keels in happy shame 
 That into her close Tvestern secrets broke ; 
 He knew her scorn and smile 
 And fathomed every wile, 
 Treading in joy the hollowed pine or oak ; 
 The astonished sailors felt the peerless stroke 
 Of still assurance when the headland rose 
 Before them and the morning brought swift close 
 To mutinous fury facing the near Afric sand 
 And impotent to make him seek the wished-for strand. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 He held the wonder in his heart and soon 
 From all the winds ca me confirmation strong 
 To bear his swift previsionings along ; 
 He followed every track beneath the moon 
 And sought from south to north whatever rune 
 Deciphered showed the path he was to tread; 
 Nor any region might refuse the boon 
 Unto his asking ; forth his steps were led 
 Unto the extreme shore 
 That then the honor wore 
 Of searchings far and wide into the dread 
 And awful marvels that the ocean bred ; 
 And knowledge came to aid him and her speech 
 Pointed unto the fruitage in his reach; 
 The noble Florentine, the traveler of the skies, 
 Like a new planet s^w the new West glow and rise. 
 
48 EL NUEFO MUNDO 
 
 IX. 
 
 The very light was filled with fair sea tales 
 As if the sun were leagued with his chief hope; 
 A luminous mist of story and of trope 
 Swept through the lands and girt his visioned sails 
 With the exalting bliss that never fails. 
 
 What if he knew not half the magic lore 
 Which came down wafted on the freighted gales 
 From the dim past, yet Plato's vanished shore 
 And the stern Roman's dream 
 Seen in the stormless stream 
 Of light prophetic, and what picture more 
 Shone to complete the world, rejoiced to soar 
 Into the heaven of his musiiigs, cling 
 To his enlinking thought, and there to sing 
 A music that by many had been softly heard 
 And iterant in refrain the East had West averred. 
 
 X. 
 
 Mornwards were realms of fairy ; far Cathay 
 Drew with its towers and singular roofs of gold, 
 And farther towards the springs of light the bold 
 
 Discoverer saw the foam that starred the way 
 
 To great Zipangu ; who should say him nay ? 
 In Asia's dimness potent Prester John 
 
 Ruled still (so spoke their dreamings) and the day 
 Of rosy lustre had not fled and gone 
 From glorious Kublai Khan 
 Whose width of regnance ran 
 
EL NUEl^O MUNDO 49 
 
 Unto the hither sea ; his thoughts sped on 
 Across the sun-kissed waves and dwelt upon 
 The fortunes of the lucky brothers twain 
 And Rubruquis and more whose deeds were vain 
 Because the hated Turk usurped the Orient; 
 Upon the western skies his hopes were set and bent. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Scant was the bread he w^on, and hard the toil 
 Of many askings ; you might surely deem 
 The country would not unresponsive seem 
 That bore the Prince of Seamen and whose spoil 
 Of treasures won with strength no storm could foil 
 Called his work hers who passed the haunted cape 
 To distant Calicut ; but the stern coil 
 Of sharp denial gave no sure escape 
 From its coercive prison ; 
 The light was not arisen 
 Upon his weary darkness ; many an ape 
 01 dullard greatness would yet grin and gape 
 Upon the calm severity that held 
 Its course unshaken, patient, and unquelled, 
 Scorning the Portuguese device which basely sought 
 To grasp the certain prize and bring his life to naught. 
 
 xn. 
 
 But Love looked on his eager step and brow 
 And sang him melodies to lull and cheer 
 His bitter waiting ; children blithe and dear 
 
 Climbed on his knee, and made the time allow 
 
50 EL NUEVO MUNDO 
 
 A respite from the deep and mastering vow ; 
 
 Nobly formed was he, strong and large of frame, 
 The potent eye clear with Hght to endow 
 A darkling multitude ; the furrows came 
 Full early and the face 
 Revealed across its space 
 The unresting purpose and the mind of flame ; 
 A vigorous soul that saw the heights of fame, 
 Being part of large intents ; and if at last 
 Love in another guise beside him passed. 
 Be sure heaven frowned not on that simple paradise 
 Nor gazed upon it with stern unrelenting eyes. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Moreover when he claimed the right to rule 
 The realms he found and portions of the store 
 Of riches they gave up, what did he more 
 Than emphasize the part he played ? The cool 
 Winds of the morning sweeping o'er the pool. 
 That seeks to hold the sunrise on its breast. 
 Capricious, wayward, yet are not the fool 
 To yield one atom of the waters' best 
 Which they beheve is theirs ; 
 No flower the summer bears 
 But calls the sun his own, and the wide west 
 In days to come should each with the all invest; 
 He was the master of the islands far, 
 He was the late and slowly rising star, 
 Beneath which burst their beauty from the darkness' thrall, 
 And he of right was ruler and great admiral. 
 
EL NUEl^O MUNDO 51 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Forth fared he from the land that knew him not 
 And soug:ht the region of brave-voiced romance, 
 About which all the winged seasons dance 
 In lyric joyance, Spain, whose lofty lot 
 Was to conclude the conflict unforgot ; 
 
 Again the sense-steeped and luxurious creed 
 That rose in Asia, bred amid her hot 
 And desert sands, contended with the need 
 For nobler self-possession, 
 And spirit's free confession 
 Of firm allegiance to the truth whose meed 
 Is to obtain the will and strength to bleed 
 For those who toil and mourn ; great-hearted Spain, 
 Fronting the expectant and sonorous main, 
 Had the keen sight to pierce the mists which overhung 
 The outer ocean, taught by the unfearing tongue 
 
 XV. 
 
 That had made Europe hear the constant story ; 
 
 She bent at first a sombre deep surprise 
 
 Upon the whitened hair and anxious eyes ; 
 Her sages and her counselors, old and hoary, 
 Sat gazing from their wisdom's promontory 
 
 Steadfastly seaward, but a shadow lay 
 Upon the outlook's still invisible glory, 
 
 And they believed not in the nearing day ; 
 But there were those who felt 
 The mystery that dwelt 
 
52 EL NUEyO MUNDO 
 
 In his firm words, the prince, of amplest sway, 
 Medina^Celi, and, keen in the fray, 
 The third king of the realm, Mendoza, priest 
 And statesman, witli the Queen's advisers, least 
 Inclined to marvels, Santangel, Quintanilla strong. 
 And the imperious Marchioness whose life's rich song 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Answered his own ; but now the Crescent pale 
 Shrank behind clouds of war, and the pure Queen 
 Held victory grasped ; at Santa Fe were seen 
 
 The royal armament whose stern avail 
 
 Shattered the Saracen kingdom and saw quail 
 The Oriental life before the sweep 
 
 Of nobleness that dwelt behind the mail 
 Of lords and knights ; for them the moving deep 
 Held regions secret yet 
 But where their bold hopes set 
 Should come to sight in forms wherein the leap 
 Of impulse might find joyance and still keep 
 
 Friendship with law that fetters and makes free; 
 
 For them ere long the sun's unloosened sea 
 
 Should flow round Moorish towers wherefrom burns forth 
 the cross, 
 
 Symbol of hope and love that grow and know not loss. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 But not to you, O Europe, came the task 
 To build the commonweal that shall endure 
 And ever brighten till its action pure 
 
EL NUEVO MUNDO 53 
 
 Grows even as time itself must seek and ask ; 
 Power knew not what was hidden behind the mask 
 
 The ages wove for it to wear, strong Love, 
 That throws from off its brow the glittering casque, 
 And fills the world with the clear light thereof ; 
 They built the narrow cell 
 Wherein the accents fell 
 Of Judges whom no mildness of the dove 
 Kept from the serpent's keenness ; forth they drove 
 The patient wisdom of a people sad 
 With the unfinished pain their drear past had, 
 And whom the New World, too, should free from the dark 
 
 doom 
 Which wove around them centuries of grief and gloom. 
 
 xvni. 
 
 Thus the past clutched the throat of wise intent, 
 And murdered Spain when her hand held the kej's 
 To unlock the future's happier mysteries ; 
 
 And the defeated Moor saw^ once more bent 
 
 The nations at the shrine from whence are sent 
 Soul-slajing vapors and a shuddering dread 
 
 Of lordly deeds for which all time is meant. 
 Europe had a long weary path to tread 
 Unto that far seen goal 
 For which the New World sole 
 Waited, and unto which her life is wed ; 
 O gray discoverer there among the dead, 
 
 Or those whose unsealed ej^es behold the all, 
 
 Great Sailor and the Future's Admiral, 
 
54 EL NUEyO MUNDO 
 
 You see what land you found— not Asia's mere decay, 
 But the Achievement's best, and gold of the New Day! 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Yet had his sun not risen ; from his lips 
 Fell in swift fervid accents his desire, 
 And Talavera's eyes of smouldering fire 
 Shone with a myriad doubts, a dark eclii)se 
 Of faith hung round him, and the longed-for ships 
 
 Ploughed but the ocean of his star-lit dreams ; 
 Time had not tried his soul enough with whips 
 And scorns, for so the rigid Master deems 
 He makes his servants fit 
 For the hard toils which knit 
 The perfect garment, firm and without seams. 
 The world shall wear at last ; his hurt brain teems 
 With indignation and he turns away 
 Undaunted, and he girds him for the fray 
 Once more ; but first he hears the words of his good friend, 
 Marchena, strong with trust in the far-shining end. 
 
 XX. 
 
 His wanderings reached at last the lonely door 
 
 Of La Rabida ; there the silence came 
 
 Grateful upon his grief's consuming flame ; 
 The simple cloisters gave him peace once more 
 And the live ocean rolled up to the shore 
 
 Its ceaseless voice of promise ; through the pines 
 The sun looked down benignant, and the roar 
 
 Of the far world of rivalries declines 
 
EL NUEyO MUNDO 55 
 
 Into an inward murmur, 
 With each day growing firmer, 
 Whose sense is conquest at the last ; as shines 
 A lamp across a rocky path's confines 
 Making the outlet clear, Juan Perez' faith, 
 Who heard him and conceived his words no wraith 
 Of fevered fancy but the very truth, w^as light 
 To bring the Queen to know his purposes aright. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 O noble priest and friend ! you reached the court 
 And turned the Queen from conquest's mid career 
 To hearken ; other triumphs glittered clear 
 Before her, and again from Huelva's port 
 The seeker came ; he saw Granada's fort 
 Open its gates reluctant, and the king, 
 El Zogoibi, bcM^ail his bitter sort 
 And loss which made the rich TV Deujns ring 
 When on La Vela's to^ver 
 The cross bloomed like a flower 
 Of heaven's own growing ; but the sudden spring. 
 Loud with birds silent long that strove to sing, 
 After the winter's weary voiceless reign. 
 Was overcast with storms of cold disdain ; 
 Haughtily forth he fared and reached Granada's gates 
 When the clouds lifted and the persecuting fates 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Relented from their fury ; for the Queen 
 Listened unto the urgings manifold 
 
56 EL NUEVO MUNDO 
 
 Of Santangel, and counsel, wise and bold, 
 Of the far-seeing Marchioness, whose keen 
 Divinings pierced the misty ocean's screen 
 
 And felt the deed must surely come to pass ; 
 So they recalled him, and his life's changed scene 
 
 Grew bright with blooms and smile of thickening grass ; 
 O royal woman then 
 Your hand received again 
 The keys of a great realm ; in the clear glass 
 Of actions yet to be whose fires amass 
 Infinite stores of impulse toward the good, 
 Your image permanent lies ; forth from the wood 
 Of beasts malicious and the unrelenting dread 
 You showed the way, but sought not from the gloom to tread. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 The wind was fair, the ships lay in the bay. 
 And the blue sky looked down upon the earth; 
 Prophetic time laughed toward the nearing birth 
 
 Of the strong child with whom should come a day 
 
 That dulled all earlier hours. Forth on the waj^ 
 With holy blessings said, and bellied sails, 
 
 And mounting joy that knows not let nor stay! 
 Lo ! the undaunted purpose never fails ! 
 O patient master, seer. 
 For whom the far is near. 
 The vision true, and the mere present pales 
 Its lustre, what mild seas and blossomed vales 
 
 Awaited you? haply a paradise 
 
 But not the one which drew your swerveless eyes ; 
 
EL NUEFO MUNDO 57 
 
 Could you have known what lands were there beyond the 
 
 main, 
 You surelier would have turned to gladsomeness from pain. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 Light-bearer ! this did you hope indeed to be, 
 Freeing the holy tomb from dominance base 
 And cleansing earth's bent brow from dark disgrace; 
 Waited not Prester John across the sea 
 With eager sons under his canopy 
 
 Of gold and on his emerald-studded throne? 
 Wealth should you have and wide-spread empery 
 To bring bowed hearts to Truth who heard their moan 
 And made it yours to lift 
 The heavy clinging drift 
 From their sad days, the many hearts who lone 
 And anguished suffered falsehood's monotone ; 
 Such was your dream, O strong deliverer! 
 But your achievement infinite-mightier 
 Planted the tree of Freedom in its foredoomed soil 
 And wrested from old 111 the remnant of his spoil. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 What room for cold detraction's voice? What gain 
 In finding weakness where so much of strength 
 Reached the far end it sought so long at length? 
 
 Grant that his soul had here and there a stain. 
 
 The splendor of his deed must still remain 
 The clear avouchment of his manhood's height; 
 
 That cannot be the truth which would constrain 
 
58 EL NUE^O MUNDO 
 
 The mind to dull details and hold from sight 
 The life that is the whole 
 Vision ; the mists uproll 
 From the wide landscape and the generous light 
 Bathes in its affluence hill and stream ; the night 
 Seeks its lair far bej^ond the glowing earth ; 
 Here is the J03' of daring and of worth ; 
 If mists cling to the trees or thin clouds yet obscure, 
 We ask not in the day's impendence white and pure. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 T\^'o worlds, from the beginning sundered, flow 
 Into the stream that is the planet's life, 
 A strength showing sweet peace brought forth of strife; 
 
 The giant winds upon their wanderings go 
 
 From the grim lands of changeless iron snow 
 Unto the climes where rules the centred sun, 
 
 And everywhere the exulting nations know 
 That their approaching Destiny is one ; 
 This hath the Sea-King wrought 
 Whose forAvard leaping thought 
 Felt that man's victory Avas but half ^^ay done 
 Unless both realms were intimatel^^ ^^on 
 
 Unto the mightj^ goodness which is God 
 
 And Lord of Historj-'s utmost period; 
 
 His hand conjoined the parted continents once for all, 
 He looked for land and lo ! a nobler spirit-fall ! 
 
III. 
 
 THE DEED. 
 
 To cross the seas of life, naught suffices save the bark of 
 faith. In that bark the undoubting Columbus set sail, and 
 at his journey's end found a new world. Had that world 
 not then existed, God would have created it in the solitude 
 of the Atlantic, if to no other end than to reward the faith 
 and constancy of that great man. 
 
 EMILIO CASTELAR. 
 
THE DEED. 
 
 I. 
 
 Reach but the heights of truth and every star 
 Trembles and shines for aims you seek and love ; 
 The winds become the pursuivants thereof, 
 Their blare triumphant heralds you afar; 
 No danger can affright, no power can bar 
 
 The stern endeavor leagued with very thought, 
 The impassioned hope that is right's avatar 
 And sees its substance surely wrought 
 Into the w^eb of time ; 
 He breathes the superb clime 
 Of certain victory, who, borne by naught 
 From the pursuit his loftiest dreams have sought> 
 Follows the rocky path, however steep, 
 Which lovers of mankind perceive and keep ; 
 All forces of the land and sea and air conspire 
 To bring to pass what feeds eternity's desire. 
 
 II. 
 
 The soft acclaim of heaven accompanies 
 The advent of the hero on the earth ; 
 Nothing of wonder may attest his worth 
 Or break upon and shake the revelries 
 Of arrogant pleasure which concludes not his 
 
 61 
 
63 EL NUEk^O MUNDO 
 
 To ring the knell of what it holds most dear; 
 But where the secret place of potence is, 
 And where the heart of life beats high and clear, 
 The light's intenser glow 
 And joy's superber flow 
 Betoken triumph gainst the ancient fear ; 
 The night is sorely stricken and her drear 
 Control is nearly over ; every stream 
 Speeds with new strength in the sun's strenuous stream, 
 Defeat beholds with dark chagrin how all his skill 
 Of strange undoing served to work the sovereign will. 
 
 III. 
 
 Now the swift hours seemed friendly ; everywhere 
 Smiled portents of success to the emprise 
 Which looked for sunrise where the low day dies 
 Into the seas incarnadine ; to dare 
 Was certain conquest ; earth was all aware 
 
 Of the endeavor, and her heart was thrilled 
 With mighty impulse that her son should fare 
 Straight to the doom she long had loved and willed ; 
 He was the very mid 
 Of the intentions hid 
 Within her bosom till her hands had spilled 
 Enough of marvels and the unfulfilled 
 Desires of her bold manchild sought the realms 
 Beyond the sea with courage-governed helms 
 Where he could build anew, free from the past's grim 
 
 wrong, 
 A home his soul might dwell in, life's last burst of song. 
 
EL NUEVO MUNDO 63 
 
 IV. 
 
 Now the winds rose from out the storied east, 
 Freighted with all tlie perfumed memories 
 That murmured in their brains like happy bees 
 Seeking the hives w^herein the store increased 
 Of earth's best products was set for the feast 
 
 Whereby all men recline and each is king ; 
 The light wind freshened while the monk and priest 
 Watched from his height the vessels vanishing ; 
 The sea was fair as youth, 
 The wind was firm as truth, 
 The cloven waters with a swish and swing 
 Around the ship's sides seemed to close and sing ; 
 The known shores faded and the speeding days 
 Brought them unto the skyward-reaching blaze 
 Of islanded sheer Teneriffe that pierced the night 
 With its sharp cone and thrilled the unaccustomed sight. 
 
 Forth into unknown seas ! and who shall say 
 
 What keel clove those forgetful waves before? 
 
 Had the dark-haired and slim Phoenician's prore 
 Seen creaming from its thrust the fitful play 
 Of those unraging waters ? or the way 
 
 Been conscious of the Greekish mariner 
 Whose fancj^ wantoned in the golden day 
 
 Of lost Atlantis ? or the storm and stir 
 Of an obscure unrest 
 Driven a king from blest 
 
64 EL NUEVO MUNDO 
 
 And firm-built power to see through misted blur 
 Strange coasts arise and many an islander? 
 The smoothly-slipping rippled element 
 Seemed false-benignant in its calm consent ; 
 What vague forebodings held their inmost hearts appalled 
 When sea was all that shone upon their sight enthralled? 
 
 VI. 
 
 The sky above them glittered clear and pure, 
 The vast horizons scarcely shut them in ; 
 Had the strange path an end ? was theirs to win 
 A shore beyond that solitude? Secure 
 In the far-stretching distance lay the lure 
 
 Which siren-wise laughed in the present calm ? 
 Or did the silver monotone endure 
 Until its splendor ached, and the fierce qualm 
 Wrought madness in the brain? 
 Farther upon the plain 
 Of liquid lucence and no sign of balm 
 Unto the growing fear and lifted palm ; 
 Held the same law in the same certain strength 
 The new and old ? or was change here at length ? 
 These treacherous waves perchance rolled on no human 
 
 shore, 
 And vaguely westward was the infinite's opened door? 
 
 VII. 
 
 A broken mast tossed loose from w^ave to wave! 
 A sign from the as yet unfathomed sea 
 And menace to their rash temerity ! 
 
EL NUEVO MUNDO 65 
 
 For who might bind her as a willing slave 
 To his devisings ? was she not one grave 
 Pellucid, fragrant, lambent everywhere, 
 Covetous of life and impotent to save? 
 Still the quick birds were fearless and the air 
 Upbore their flutterings, 
 And the increasing rings 
 Of their large flight portended something fair. 
 Pelican, tunny fish, aught that could bear 
 A happy presage woke a fleeting thrill 
 Of the old hope which dimmed and lessened still ; 
 What might survive upon the stretching lone expanse 
 Save the light tribes of air, and fishes' darting dance? 
 
 VIII. 
 
 But lo ! the sea became a tangled mass, 
 A floating meadoT^ of unnameable weeds, 
 A sterile growth answering no man's needs, 
 A demon-fashioned obstacle to pass, 
 A moving desert covered with strange grass, ' 
 
 Another horror Tvhich the ^water spawns, 
 That aggregate of drops more clear than glass, 
 But hiding in its clearness fifty dawns 
 Of ominous miracle. 
 An ever variant spell 
 Which while it brings to sight its Tvrecks, yet fawns 
 Upon its victims ; through the yielding lawns, 
 Starred Avith red berries like dull spots of fire. 
 That were the signs of its condign desire, 
 They cut their way at last, but now the winds were still ; 
 What next? when would the sea's wild fancy have its will? 
 
66 EL hlUEyO MUNDO 
 
 IX. 
 
 Drifting slowly unto their doom ; the glow 
 Of the smooth waters to the silent right, 
 Leftwards the shine of the unvarying light, 
 Into the very void they seemed to go ; 
 No hand with land the wastes had laughed to sow ; 
 
 There was around them a crystalline peace. 
 That grew more weird than night when storm-winds 
 
 blow; 
 They might turn backwards and thus gain release, 
 But who could surely feel 
 That the reversM keel 
 Might not find gulfs where even time would cease ? 
 At night the burnished stars with soft increase 
 Of flame made the far reaches visible ; 
 They were a-float within a widening dell 
 Of death's sheer imminence ; even as a flaw is found 
 Dimming and shadowy inside a diamond's round. 
 
 X. 
 
 Wherefore had shone the baleful light on high? 
 
 The meteor that fell from its steep place 
 
 And hissing met the sea's uplifted space? 
 Were the stars fixed in yonder high-domed sky ? 
 And whence did the unchanging breezes fly ? 
 
 Hard sailing in the teeth of winds ; and Spain, 
 Fair land of memories, both arm and eye 
 
 Of Europe, like a dream at morn that vain 
 And fragile passed and sped, 
 Or soul mixed with the dead 
 
EL NUEVO MUNDO 67 
 
 And mounting upward to unfleeting gain, 
 Would hardly greet them more beyond the plain 
 Of sinuous waves into whose spell they swept ; 
 Here all was other ; not even the needle kept 
 Her truth in the mad realms ; yet better to be lost 
 On the track homewards than on this grim sin be tost. 
 
 XI. 
 
 But the Commander swerved not from his trust, 
 His prayers were answered while he uttered them, 
 His eyes were fixed beyond the sunset's hem, 
 And the fates surelj^ could not be unjust : 
 His thoughts were truth itself, and so there must 
 Rise from the deeps an answer clear and meet; 
 He calmed the sailors' dreads and often thrust 
 Their glooms aside ^with foregleams of the feat 
 Which all time should record 
 Their braveries' fit award ; 
 His skill pictured for them the toTvn and street 
 Wherethrough the Khan life, fierce and golden, beat; 
 What fear of fire stones falling from above? 
 He knew them T\^ell ; besides the tomb of Love 
 Who died for men must needs have freeing ; Holy Writ 
 Sanctioned their distant search and prophesied of it. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Yet the fierce anguish of the homeless waste 
 Grew^ stronger, and they rose in scorn and hate 
 Against their chief, whose madness, soon or late, 
 
 Must bring the doom which they so long had faced 
 
68 EL NUEJ/O MUNDO 
 
 Half helplessly ; they would, no more disgraced 
 And shamedly hearkening his obscure behests, 
 Feel their firm wits by his crazed dreams displaced, 
 Nor seek these wests eked out by farther wests ; 
 And if death came, alack I 
 It should be on the track 
 Homewards ; let him go forth on dangerous quests 
 With those unweeting that his interests 
 Were not the heaven's, but intense search for gold 
 Of which low-breathed secrets had been told 
 Into his ear by lying pilots who had been 
 But a short way upon the ocean's swirl and sin. 
 
 xni. 
 
 The Admiral heard their loud complaints and called 
 Unto the ships accompanying his ; 
 In solemn council all their miseries 
 Were spoken and the demon deep unwalled 
 Tossed round them ; then the Pinzon unappalled 
 
 Voiced the great need from off the swaying deck 
 And for a brief time held them disenthralled, 
 Obedient to their Master's word and beck ; 
 "Senor, some two or three 
 Of these might feed the sea ; 
 And if the hangman's office seem a fleck 
 Upon you which you love not. they shall reck 
 Not long of mere delay ; my brother here 
 And I will bear down on them swiftly, cheer 
 Their dark despair, and land them in another world! 
 The flag we bear is but above success unfurled !" 
 
EL NUEVO MUNDO 69 
 
 XIV. 
 
 They cowered abashed and the touched Admiral said : 
 "A few days more we will our course pursue 
 And the near hour will give the land to view ; 
 Such do I deem the present likelihead ; 
 But if these last few hours are fully sped 
 
 And only sky and water greet us, I 
 Will change the sailing by your longings led." 
 Then Pinzon once more raised his voice and high 
 Above the wind and wave 
 Sounded the message brave : 
 "Forward! Forward! Forward!" a clarion cry 
 Circling around between the sea and sky. 
 Whatever deeds darkened your latter days, 
 That courage lifts you, Pinzon, past all praise; 
 Your haughty spirit gave its fire when needed most, 
 And to those dauntless words reached forth the enamored 
 coast! 
 
 XV. 
 
 And later came the cry of land — perchance 
 
 Because we often see the thing we long 
 
 To see — and the wan Admiral raised the song 
 Gloria in Excelsis — and his glance 
 Wandered afar where the lit ripples dance ; 
 
 Lo ! there it lay, purple and dim, a cloud 
 Hardening to shore with the full-sailed advance ; 
 
 So they all hoped with their pale faces bowed 
 And eyes straining and fierce 
 Into the depths to pierce ; 
 
70 EL NUEl^O MUNDO 
 
 Continent was it? or a thick-set crowd 
 Of islands? the close flight of birds avowed 
 The nearing rest and harbor — thick thej^ came. 
 Fluttered and chattered without let or blame ; 
 Alack ! the land sank back into the abysses there ; 
 The sighing waves beneath and round them nought but air ! 
 
 XVI. ^ 
 
 Even the great heart faltered and at night 
 He sat upon the deck and felt the gloom 
 Falling around him like a mighty doom ; 
 The faint glow on the waters left and right 
 Hurt his tense mood and something shut his sight, 
 
 And whether sleep or waking he knew not, 
 Or whether it was dark or full of light. 
 Or whether earth or other holier spot ; 
 But a voice softly spake. 
 Nor did the silence break ; 
 "Have I not led you? have you too forgot 
 How from your childhood I have made your lot 
 Mine own, and filled your life with me, and gave 
 You toils I needed in my toils to save 
 Man from himself? And do you doubt and tremble now? 
 Nay, fear not ! Lo ! my certain morning girds your brow !" 
 
 XVII. 
 
 He woke as one who might return from death 
 Unto the scenes he knew beneath the sun 
 And to far heights his thoughts began to run ; 
 
 His dreams flew past the bounds where tarrieth 
 
EL hlUEVO MUNDO 71 
 
 The mind of men, and over him the breath 
 
 Of the Terrestrial Paradise sped soft, 
 And he heard waking what the sweet mouth saith 
 Of the pure Mother who sits throned aloft 
 And crowned by her own Son ; 
 Her radiant smile had won 
 His heart to deep allegiance and had oft 
 Shone on his darkness and his soul had doffed 
 Its sadness , he could wait for many a morn 
 With this clear vision ; frequent when the scorn 
 Had seemed too much to bear, he had heard murmurs beat 
 Within him, and he would the mystic tones repeat 
 
 XA^III. 
 
 Even like the fiery thunderous ones of old 
 Who spoke what heaven itself poured through their 
 
 lips. 
 Striving to ward their country's near eclipse; 
 Ah, if the obscure Future had unrolled 
 The stately pageant which she held in fold 
 
 Of dimness, how his full heart must have leapt 
 Unto the Hesperian Freedom's morning gold ; 
 He would have known that his straight voyage kept 
 The road to Paradise 
 Indeed, which earthly eyes 
 Should see, and the salt tears which time had wept 
 Must feel assuaged, for the Republic slept 
 Her antenatal slumber and light fell 
 Beneath her trembling eyelids, her A/Z's Well! 
 Would ring above the expectant lands, and the last birth 
 Of national powers arise in stature of her worth. 
 
73 EL NUEl^O MUNDO 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Perhaps some forefeel of his latter days 
 Came over him, Fonseca's tireless hate, 
 And all the ills that oft on greatness wait, 
 And hardships of triumphant rugged ways; 
 And further on the world-wide lamping hlaze 
 
 Of gratitude "svhich circled his bright name ; 
 His last doubts vanished and his gaze 
 STvept the wide ocean ; he could bear the blame 
 Of the dull halting men, 
 Who TTould withhold again 
 The world from its advancement, and their shame 
 Should be his ansTver Tvhen the victory came ; 
 He had not failed to hear when his thought spoke, 
 He had not failed to read what message broke 
 Upon him Trhen the outer life Tv^as quieted 
 And his deep heart and deeper truth were \n\.y wed. 
 
 XX. 
 
 Was that a new star in the purple West ? 
 
 Golden and flickering, quenched and full of fire. 
 
 Like an uncertain strengthening desire ? 
 It glows above the uttermost dark crest 
 Of waters ; O mysterious palimpsest 
 
 Of the round skies, will you not utter clear 
 The secret you have shrouded terriblest 
 
 Amid the weltering ocean's vast and fear? 
 Is yonder flame the key 
 Unto the mystery ? 
 
 The last word in the message darkling here 
 
EL hlUEyO MUNDO 73 
 
 Which fills the meaning out, repaying drear 
 And dim-eyed watching and grim anguishing 
 Of the tense soul that now may rise and sing 
 
 Its rich-voiced paean and the heart awake once more 
 
 Into the joy of life from over-cloudings sore? 
 
 XXI. 
 
 Is it a star? its lambent tremulousness 
 Melts in the dark around it ! no^v it pales 
 And its soft lustre droops and faints and fails ; 
 It breaks anew ! it comes like a caress 
 From regions of divinest blessedness I 
 
 "Pedro Gutierrez, turn j''Our sight afar! 
 What is yon shining oi the floating tress?" 
 "I mark the pale far radiance of a star!" 
 "Oh, look again, again, 
 And call the next of men ! 
 Rodrigo of Segovia, past the bar 
 Of many waves see you what flashings are?" 
 "Nay, good your grace, I see naught but the dark!" 
 Forth leaps to leeward the adventurous bark ! 
 Lo ! there ! It shines again ! Master, it grows more bright ! 
 All men upon your knees ! It is a light ! — a light ! 
 
IV. 
 
 THE NEW WORLD. 
 
 Come thou whole self of Latter Man ! 
 Come o'er thy realm of Good-and-IU, 
 
 And do, thou Self that sayest, I can. 
 
 And love, thou Self that sayest, I will; 
 
 And prove and know Time's worst and best, 
 
 Thou tall young Adam of the West ! 
 
 LAmER. 
 
THE hIElV ^ORLD. 
 
 I. 
 
 Eastward the dawn and to the west lay land ; 
 Oh not Cathay, but a more virgin soil, 
 And waiting for the newer faith and toil, 
 Responsive to a more august command ; 
 Nor here where breezes blew serene and bland 
 
 And the warm sun enlarged from labors rude, 
 Upon this river-fed and fruitful strand 
 AVhere nothing harsh or stern dared to intrude, 
 Was the fair dome to rise. 
 But under cloudier skies, 
 In which the nobler reach and larger mood 
 Should find themselves drawn on and subtly wooed 
 To make their dwelling with the whole of man, 
 Moulded unto the dream wherein began 
 The passion of his life, for from no lesser source, 
 Flowed the wide stream of hope and urged its deepening 
 course. 
 
 u. 
 
 Once more a portent shone in Germany ; 
 For there the Great Reformer rose and stood 
 Firm-poised and strong against a very wood 
 
 77 
 
78 EL NUE^O MUNOO 
 
 Of opposition; no more should there be 
 A wall betwixt the soul and verity ; 
 
 In the wide spiritual realms there was no king 
 Save God ; life's effort had not been to free 
 Mankind for the vain later end to bring 
 Upon it servitude 
 To a power once imbued 
 With the pure love wherewith the seasons sing, 
 But now athirst for nile, and carrying 
 Base pomp into the sanctuary's mid; 
 He could no other do than he was bid 
 By the deep voice within, and spirit's rich domain. 
 Seen by the eye of faith, lay clear revealed and plain. 
 
 III. 
 Also the soul confronted in its might 
 The shows of all the world, and dared to say 
 That there was naught beneath the eye of day 
 Which fell not in its province, and its right 
 To judge what truth was came not from the light 
 
 Flickering alone in cloisters ; every man 
 Stood in the hall of Good, and his own sight 
 Eead the true message that on high began ; 
 The young strong cities rose, 
 And yet another close 
 Of music through the deepening chorus ran. 
 And peaceful toil pressed forward in the van ; 
 The castles fro^vned upon their rough hill sides, 
 And the hurt villein looked upon the ride.s 
 Of glittering lords and ladies with a half despair. 
 Then left the plough and sought the city's freer air. 
 
EL NUEl^O MUNDO 79 
 
 IV. 
 
 Through the rapt ages sped the dream and grew 
 More certain with the pregnant flight of time 
 And set the seasons in a richer rhyme ; 
 From every star that shone and wind that blew 
 The intelligence came, and all men surely knew 
 That the deep self was height and lucid peak 
 From whence the landscape took proportion due, 
 And justice was the good they were to seek ; 
 Mere trust in rule was dead, 
 And it had basely led 
 Into the gardens withered now and bleak 
 Wherein too long mad kings had joyed to wreak 
 Their wanton fancies and their wild caprice 
 On men whose hands had given long life and lease 
 To crime and shamelessness ; the flame-lit end was here; 
 Each man decreed himself, and sovereigned all the sphere. 
 
 V. 
 
 The thunder rolled above impetuous France, 
 The earth shook in the storm, and savage cries 
 Of the roused nations answered to the skies; 
 
 The thrones of Europe trembled, and the lance 
 
 Of Freedom clove the darkness with the glance 
 Of its divine illumination, yet 
 
 Too fierce and strenuous was the griin advance, 
 And by too many foes self-made beset ; 
 So Victory spurned the earth 
 As of too little worth 
 For her long dwelling ; and the ground was wet 
 
80 EL NUEVO MUhDO 
 
 With curdliDg dews the \rays would fain forget ; 
 The scomful sun looked down in pain and wrath 
 On lands that trod the new-old hatrful path : 
 A sigh came from the seas, and everrAvhere was heard 
 The cry. "How long, O Freedom, is your reign deferred!'' 
 
 VI. 
 
 O sunset land I to von the days have given 
 The noblest labor, the sererest meed. 
 The Consommation and the Mighty Deed ! 
 Ton shall from all cast ofi the manacles riven 
 In the sad past, and time's old sorrows drivai 
 
 B^ore like leaves upon the antnnin blast. 
 And memories of crimes and wrongs nnshriven. 
 In the fierce light that your clear eyes will cast, 
 Mnst se^ the open grave 
 From which no later wave 
 Of shame or loUy can revive them : fast 
 Shan they lie there nntil a springtime vast 
 Sweeps over them and makes them part of life 
 That has arisen fnll-sinewed from the strife. 
 Yonr surging life. O Mother, trinmph-voieed and great, 
 Shaper of man's firm welfare, Bmlder of the State '. 
 
 xn. 
 
 What have you not that kisses of the sun 
 Deiight to fondle ? waters, large and fair. 
 And golden r^ons of the variant air : 
 Both oceans find their daily loves undone 
 Unless their songs within your ears are spun ; 
 
EL NUEl^O MUNDO 81 
 
 Your mountains soar aboTe you, calm and tall, 
 And lure until their silences have won 
 Your hearts to spiritual heights which hold and 
 thrall ; 
 
 Your prairies like a bride 
 Laugh to the blue skies w^ide 
 With their abundance ; no fate can befall 
 You save the further rich behest and call 
 Of wisdomed bringing what you have in fee 
 Unto all lands, mild peace and liberty, 
 And nobler beauty, purer song, and juster sight 
 Of the deep secrets hid within the Infinite Light I 
 
 vin. 
 
 O stern-browed Heroine far across the sea, 
 Your daughter knows your blood within her veins, 
 And hearkens to the ever-ringing strains 
 Your voice has poured to honor Liberty ; 
 Her have you "worshiped and you still must be 
 
 Helper and guide upon the luminous way ; 
 What you have done to make the nations free. 
 Believing ever in the sun-filled day 
 
 That shall pervade at length 
 Mankind in all its strength, 
 Named you the first of those for Tvhom the play 
 Of forces bringing triumph sped the ray 
 Of the result divine ; we feel you here 
 Within us, and the hour cannot appear, 
 O England, which will not turn youwards and repeat 
 How your grand life's stream flows within us pure and 
 sweet. 
 
82 EL NUEyO MUNDO 
 
 IX. 
 
 The secret found at last ! obedience 
 To nothing alien but the very God 
 Fluent throughout the majestic period ; 
 The soul of man and life one stream whose whence 
 Is in the light of Good's pre-eminence ; 
 
 The heart of each co-equal with the Avhole 
 That round it flows in joyous turbulence; 
 The soul of man one self-divided soul, 
 Whose parts innumerous are 
 Conjoined as light to star, 
 A star whose beams around it speed and roll, 
 Each beam all light and true as steel to pole 
 Unto its source of pure yet mixfed flame, 
 Each beam all light reflected to the same 
 Glory and fervor whence its dreams have ever been. 
 And fleeting back from being's utmost verge and sin ! 
 
 X. 
 
 O heart of time and secret of the world 
 Revealed at last beneath the happy sun, 
 O wide-branched blossom of the ages won 
 
 Into vast growth, since the first dew lay pearled 
 
 Upon the first leaf to the light uncurled. 
 Since sense of spiritual search was anywhere, 
 
 You have gleamed forth, and ray by ray unfurled 
 Your crescent shining to the ambient air ; 
 Now we behold you sure. 
 The spirit and the lure 
 Of all endeavor, not a mere nation fair, 
 
EL NUE^O MUNDO 83 
 
 Not one bright flower, but, clustered rich and rare, 
 A flower of flowers, a petalled sisterhood, 
 The torch-like centre of the heavy wood 
 Of history, giving light upon the living past 
 And chiefest glow on upward-leading pathways cast ! 
 
 XI. 
 
 In days of Greece whose eyes prophetic saw 
 The spiritual sphere disclosed, and whose life rose 
 With youthful ardor past the wizard shows 
 Of sense into that region of clear awe, 
 A flower of states whose petals drank the law 
 
 Of one strong stem half stayed the night which fell 
 Too soon, and charmed the savage winds from flaw, 
 Nearing its burst, to silence ; but too Tvell 
 For the rathe hour was planned 
 The interlinked command ; 
 Also the mountaineers who feel the spell 
 Of their wild land's enchanting miracle 
 Have Avoven a light of rule whose distinct hues 
 Conjoined have been a beacon to diffuse 
 A hope among the watchers that the delaying morn 
 Would surely come when the Republic should be born. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Now the Republic has indeed beheld 
 The vapors vanish from the western seas, 
 And day's young magic flash across the leas 
 AVhich the rapt fancy of the climes of eld 
 Longed for and prayed ; those tense desires unquelled 
 
81 EL NUEVO MUNDO 
 
 By disappointment, merciless defeat. 
 Hare spmng from every overthrow to weld 
 Anew the dream for which their passion beat ; 
 Of the Discoverer's heart 
 Those purposes had part. 
 And led him forth with unexhausted heat 
 To make strong Europe's hope the New World's feat 
 What the worn past has been anhungered for. 
 Holding all action its sure servitor, 
 The form of mle to whose large beauty men must kneel 
 Appears, a State of States, the Nationed Commonweal I 
 
 XTTT . 
 
 Not tower but city cro^med is your grand brow. 
 Your limbs prodigious in the strength of youth, 
 And in your eyes the awfulness of truth. 
 Not mail-clad, bringer of the olive-bough. 
 Holy and tender, with lips sweet from vo^v 
 
 Of help to all men in all continents. 
 And gracious hands of blessing to endow 
 With life the hopes to which all time consents ; 
 - TRe thunder of the mirth 
 Of the awakening earth 
 Hailed yon from mountains with their snowy tents. 
 And utmost shores the scarce-sailed sea indents ; 
 At night the passion of the stars looked down 
 And laughed to see you, and the sombre frown 
 That gloomed the past-rid lands faded in joy which came 
 From you, O mightiest-thewed, and source of sptritnal 
 flame! 
 
EL hlUEVO MUNDO 85 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Yet was the struggle hard ; not a mere gift 
 Is the great strength which leads to masterdom ; 
 Wisdom and just assurance only come 
 With victory over sordid ills that drift 
 Around us, and the courages that lift 
 
 Into the high are their own best reward. 
 The agonies were hers which burn and sift, 
 And her blind powers sometimes held vain accord 
 With those whose scornful boast 
 Was that thej^ harmed her most ; 
 Around her beat the many-headed horde 
 Of envy, malice, hatred, and self-scored 
 She lay with bleeding wounds ; the battle's rage 
 But made her firmer, and the dearer wage 
 Of nobler reverence, self-control, and sight of good. 
 Was hers as she emerged from that dense earlier wood. 
 
 XV. 
 
 One stain remained upon her brow, the mark 
 
 Of sin against the soul of brotherhood ; 
 
 She who was Freedom's, what fate abject could 
 Ally her with the baser crew whose dark 
 Control plucked selfhood from the crouched and stark 
 
 Corrupted ones, debased from man to thing, 
 And wreaking on their sterile brains the cark 
 
 And care which are the signs of travailing 
 With birth of loftier will? 
 Yet the hour came to spill 
 
 Upon the ground her life-blood and to bring 
 
86 EL hlUEyO MUhJDO 
 
 Her dearest to the altar that the spring 
 Might be spring unto all ; with forehead bare. 
 Washed clean of the defilement, miracle-fair, 
 She stands, the shadow in her eyes of anguish fled, 
 Strengthened and conscious of hei-self , her hopes, her dead ! 
 
 XTI. 
 
 But newer griefs assail her, lust of gold. 
 The gi-eed that would have all the world its own 
 And silences its ear to sound of moan 
 Falling from lips of Yictim, savage hold 
 Of temporal goods, that grows an uncontrolled 
 
 And never-ending madness, these grim ills 
 Sprang up around her, taunting, scornful, bold ; 
 Whither have fled the stern and potent wills 
 Who knew to curb the brood 
 Of evil-doers rude ? 
 Shine forth with glance of perfect scorn which kills, 
 O Titaness, and from the hand that tills 
 These monstrous fields, strike the ill gotten gain. 
 Be loud upon them and transform, restrain, 
 ShoTv forth the double crime, the land nor grows nor lives, 
 Which learns not hovr to steer 'twixt such alternatives. 
 
 xvn. 
 
 Why should the hungry poor groan in your borders, 
 And toil raise gaunt and angry liands of appeal 
 For wiser guerdon from the commonweal? 
 Shall you be blamed like those whom the recorders 
 Write in the Book of Grief as vain awarders 
 
EL NUEFO MUNDO 87 
 
 Of the great good which is the lot of all? 
 Nay, Mother, help ; surely your deep skill orders 
 Your realm so that the noblest issues fall 
 Unto your diverse sons ? 
 What lack of memory runs 
 Through your tense soul that you should fail to call 
 Your note of warning through your land's wide hall? 
 Graceless to grasp for more than is of use, 
 And give to greed a limitless abuse ; 
 Find way to make your equal sons by right and law 
 Partakers of yourself and sharers of your awe ! 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Lo ! at the portal stands the Angel Love, 
 The morning of her presence casts before 
 An opulent radiance from shore to shore, 
 * Responsive to the light of life above, 
 And the roused land grows cognizant thereof ; 
 
 She stands upon the threshold, she would serve 
 What her dear heart can yearn for not enough. 
 Fair sights from which her firm eyes will not swerve : 
 She would cast out forever 
 The demon who can sever 
 The hands of men, make her own life the nerve 
 Of all familiar acts, hold in its curve 
 Of gracious ascent deeds and strong desires, 
 Tread under foot fast smouldering envy's fires, 
 Withhold from grasp of aught that better feeds another 
 The strength that is in truth as name to all a brother. 
 
88 EL NUEyO MUNDO 
 
 XIX. 
 
 The land thrills with an impulse as of spring, 
 New fountains bubble underneath the soil, 
 New dreams of peace float through the night of toil, 
 New melodies begin to soar and sing 
 Within the regions of grim suffering ; 
 
 Unto a newer height the goddess leads. 
 Where brighter blooms their sweeter fragrance fling 
 Over warm reaches of benignant meads ; 
 The path before us dim 
 Liies in the twilight's rim ; 
 Soon the new sun Tvill cast from him the weeds 
 That yet enshroud him, and a day that breeds 
 A deeper love vanquish the dark anew, 
 A spiritual day with skies of singing blue, 
 A sea of spirit isled with souls around whom flow 
 The everlasting streams full of meridian glow. 
 
 XX. 
 
 Fronting the abyss with smile and brow serene, 
 The new man comes, self-poised, self-equal, firm. 
 Not held within the narrowing senses' term. 
 
 Not bound in chains of things but touched and seen ; 
 
 Faith opens outlooks past the vaporous screen 
 Of time, and the whole world lies bathed in Ught; 
 
 His courage is uplifting and his keen 
 Ardors endow the weak with his life's height ; 
 The stars, his charioteers, 
 Bring truths from utmost spheres ; 
 All fears lie dead before him, thought and might 
 
EL hlUEyO MUNDO 89 
 
 Obey him, and his sun is love and right ; 
 
 Victory calls him hers, and lofty joy, 
 
 The night and day vicissitudes employ 
 For him, the sea and air are subject to his nod, 
 And his divining eyes gaze up and look on God ! 
 
 XXI. 
 
 Here in these waiting days I raise my song. 
 Catching far gleams from what is sure to be ; 
 As one who hears the unsighted sonorous sea, 
 And the live pulses in him fiercely long 
 To mix with those glad pulses and the strong 
 
 World-circling flow, I reach forth to the hour 
 When subjugate the old tyranny of wrong 
 Will range itself beside love's conquering power; 
 These accents poor and faint 
 But dimly limn and paint 
 The centuries-crescent aloe in mid flower ; 
 Ah, that a poet of the supreme dower, 
 A poet such as earlier periods had, 
 Or full-voiced singer as will surely glad 
 The expanses of the future would build up the theme. 
 And fashion forth the wonder of the truthful dream ! 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Be glad, O land, fling your bright banners free. 
 
 Rejoice as never land rejoiced yet. 
 
 All injuries forgive, all woes forget. 
 Send your acclaim from summer sea to sea, 
 Here at this tide happy and proud are we ! 
 
90 EL NUEI^O MUNDO 
 
 Honor his heart with far heard gratitude, 
 Who knew you through the gloom and mystery, 
 Which held and swayed you from the first indued! 
 Let not one voice upraise 
 An accent other than praise ! 
 O sleepless vigor with intent imbued 
 To erect a peace in place of old world feud ! 
 Bring from the fruitful south and stalwart north 
 Your numberless array of treasures forth ! 
 Build the white halls of beauty and within them store 
 Marvels of thought and hand from every clime and shore ! 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Also call forth from the high-laboring earth 
 The wisest and the farthest reaching minds, 
 The manifold insight that forever finds 
 The deepening truths of more embracing worth, 
 Who are the masters of the encircling mirth 
 
 In ^^hich ideas rise and move and dwell, 
 Who watch in spiritual skies the pauseless birth 
 Of stars whose lordships are invincible; 
 Not in the pompous past 
 Has astroscope been cast 
 Of richer presage, and on no time fell 
 A lovelier laughter, more enduring spell ; 
 The earth is harnessed to the car of man. 
 The air will soon upbear his caravan ; 
 Towards the bold conquests hearts and eyes are fixed and 
 
 bent, 
 Fresh fragrant winds from the far vales are blown and sent. 
 
EL NUEyO MUNDO 91 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 Has Beauty fled the earth ? Had Greece alone 
 Or the great age when from the painted wall 
 The thunders of the judgment seemed to fall 
 The charm to win her ? shall the sculptured stone 
 Or forest pile of marble, luminous grown 
 
 With the pure sense of love, arise no more? 
 Nay, half her magic has not yet been shown, 
 And she will glow far dearer than before ! 
 Nay, if she onl^^ wear 
 Her uncrowned floating hair, 
 No more a queen, but woman to adore, 
 Yet must her dreams be truer, farther soar; 
 Sweetest of messengers from the far skies, 
 The untrembling light of truth within her eyes, 
 The veilless soul of man as ne'er in ages past 
 Shall by her touch in finer, fairer forms be cast ! 
 
 XXV. 
 
 The Faiths to whom were given the sacred keys 
 Of heaven, and who by different mountain ways 
 Led upward to the self-same goal of praise, 
 
 Each deeming that the opened mysteries 
 
 Were hers alone, and that the golden breeze 
 Blown through the tree of life touched but such brows 
 
 As bore her sign, shall mingle hands and seize 
 With tears the illumination which allows 
 The achievement unto each 
 For which earth's prayers beseech ; 
 Unto the one white Light arise all vows, 
 
93 EL NUE^O MUNDO 
 
 The one white Radiance punetuallj^ endows 
 The creatures everywhere with his own life, 
 And joy which hath calm purity for wife 
 Shines in the many-gated city when the song 
 Resounds to greet each wayworn and victorious throng. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 And Supreme Thought who calls the world her own, 
 And passes things and life in full review, 
 And gains the old truth that is ever new, 
 Freedom's best guide and counselor hath grown ; 
 There are no fields which her seed hath not sown, 
 
 There are no heights which her feet may not climb. 
 There are no dreams which must not hers be known, 
 There are no glooms for her in any time; 
 Arranger of all life, 
 And mistress over strife. 
 She sets the stars in melody and rhyme, 
 And makes the periods with each other chime; 
 Pouring her hopes into the dark recesses, 
 Thridding her way through the vague wildernesses. 
 She fashions, rules, designs, and dwells within the light, 
 Which is the heart of hearts, and very sight of sight, 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 O fair republics of the warmer sun, 
 O sister states rejoice amid your flowers, 
 And take with us the higher-hearted hours 
 That point to destinies but half begun 
 And grandeurs from the urgent future won ; 
 
EL NUEl^O MUNDO 93 
 
 Join hands with us in this our triumph tide, 
 Send forth the tones in deep-based unison 
 With Freedom's chorus which is close allied 
 To the rapt song that springs 
 From planetary rings ; 
 Here on the stormy ocean's hither side 
 We all w^ill say that room must he denied 
 To aught that savors of a king or crown ; 
 And you, our sister, underneath the frown 
 Of colder skies, take part in our mid revelry, 
 And greeting send to her across the southern sea ! 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 Into the future one more forward glance ! 
 Raise your great brows, O Titaness, and call 
 Over to Europe's millions ; let from your lips fall 
 The sound that bursts the agonizing trance. 
 The message that evokes the sw^ift advance ; 
 Bid war disarm, and cast his helmet down 
 And show within his T\^rathless eyes' expanse 
 The love ^vhich lurks behind his fleeting frown ; 
 Bring nearer the glad hour 
 Of congregated power ! 
 Speed you the federated world, the crown 
 Of time's endeavor ! speed ! so hill and town 
 May answer back the rich intelligence, 
 The song that ravishes both soul and sense, 
 The friendship of the nations, and the end attained 
 For which the tears were shed, the ground with blood was 
 stained ! 
 
94 EL hlUEVO MUNDO 
 
 ♦ XXIX. 
 
 And those who are the ages' children yet, 
 The Tvandering tribes wlio vaguely dream and brood, 
 Held in the bondage of an earth-born mood. 
 By foes within and foes without beset, 
 Let not the pity of the world forget ; 
 
 Shed light through their grim darkness and uplift 
 To generous manhood ; where the woods are wet 
 With dew that is not morning's tremulous gift. 
 Bring strength and lamplike peace 
 Whose lustre must increase 
 Over the earth ; with footsteps light and swift 
 Let the soft influence fleet ; into the drift 
 Lead the cleansed streams of hope and trust and thought 
 Until the conquest is more surely wrought, 
 And love and good fulfill the time, and everywhere 
 A freeman raises hand and brow unto the air ! 
 
 XXX. 
 
 One vision more! the spiritual city lies 
 
 Beneath the sun ; the all-subduing love 
 
 Inhabits there as in the realms above ; 
 As lordly as the blue unclouded skies 
 Life passes, and the mighty daAvn's surmise 
 
 Reaches completion, and the deeps on deeps 
 Of spirit which are seen alone of eyes 
 
 Whose watch is kin to power that never sleeps 
 Are more and more revealed ; 
 The inmost heavens unsealed 
 
 Comfort the heart where no more anguish weeps, 
 
EL NUEyO MUNDO 95 
 
 And open fields which faith forever reaps ; 
 The truth shines everywhere and strenuous right 
 Souls every deed with its transcendent light ; 
 The winds are song itself, the hours are radiance-fleet, 
 And fear of death is not, and every toil is sweet ! 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 God's thought rose clear before him and he said ; 
 "Lo ! I have fashioned for mine eyes to see. 
 The mighty miracle of Liberty ; 
 Unto my will have many wills been wed, 
 With mine own light have lesser lives been fed, 
 
 With mine own being filled and wondrous fire. 
 The increasing light by which their hearts are led 
 Unto the summit of all deep desire ; 
 
 From glowering suns and stars. 
 From elemental Tvars, 
 From interflux of powers and savage ire 
 That bid the engirding night pause and admire, 
 From anguish and despair, the wordless brood 
 That fill the expanse of forests primal-rude, 
 I have brought forth that mine unenvying soul might know 
 The lofty love wherewith but Freedom's self can glow!" 
 
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iiS."!!;^,?/ °^ CONGRESS