Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/180

POEMS OF OCCASION XVII

Till now, for that sure Pentecost to come,

The globe's four winds are winnowing apace

Fresh harvestings of speech, in one to sum

A world's curriculum

When East and West forgather face to face.

XVIII

Thus first imbued, thy coming host the clues

To broad achievement shall descry the more;

What thou hast taught them shall in statecraft use

Greatly; nor can they choose

But follow where the omens blaze before!

XIX

Even as our Platonist's exultant soul

That westward course of empire visioned far,

Now round the sheen, to Asia and the Pole,

Time charts upon our scroll

The empearlèd pathways of an orient star.

XX

There the swart Malay's juster league begun

Takes from our hands the tables of the law;

The mild Hawaiian raises to the sun

The folds himself had won

Ere the Antilles their deliverance saw.

XXI

Time's drama speeds: albeit, alas! its chief

Protagonist, augmenter of the State,

Fell as the Prompter turned that unread leaf,—

And oh, what tragic grief

Just when consummate towered the action great!

150