Page:The West Indies, and Other Poems.djvu/20

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' Fearless o'er giilplis unknown I urge my way, ' Where peril prowls, and shipwreck lurks for prey : ' Hope swells my sail ; — in spirit I behold ' That maiden world, twin-sister of the old,


 * By nature nursed beyond the jealous sea,


 * Denied to ages, but betrothed to me.' * ''

The winds were prosperous, and the billows bore The brave adventurer to the promised shore ; Far in the west, array'd in purple light, Dawn'd the new world on his enraptured siglu : Not Adam, loosen'd from the encumbering earth, Waked by the breath of God to instant birth. With sweeter, wilder wonder gazed around. When life within, and light without he found ; Wlien all creation rushing o'er his soul. He seem'd to live and breathe throughout the whole. So felt Columbus, when, divinely fair. At the last look of resolute despair,

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