Page:Poems, Alan Seeger, 1916.djvu/171

 That there Man's foot shall pause, and further none shall go.

Borne with the gale past Seville on the right,

And on the left now swept by Ceuta's site,

'Brothers,' I cried, 'that into the far West

Through perils numberless are now addressed,

In this brief respite that our mortal sense

Yet hath, shrink not from new experience;

But sailing still against the setting sun,

Seek we new worlds where Man has never won

Before us. Ponder your proud destinies:

Born were ye not like brutes for swinish ease,

But virtue and high knowledge to pursue.'

My comrades with such zeal did I imbue

By these brief words, that scarcely could I then

Have turned them from their purpose; so again

We set out poop against the morning sky,

And made our oars as wings wherewith to fly

Into the Unknown. And ever from the right

Our course deflecting, in the balmy night

All southern stars we saw, and ours so low,

That scarce above the sea-marge it might show.

So five revolving periods the soft,

Pale light had robbed of Cynthia, and as oft

Replenished since our start, when far and dim

Over the misty ocean's utmost rim,

Rose a great mountain, that for very height

Passed any I had seen. Boundless delight

Filled us—alas, and quickly turned to dole: 121