| Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900. |
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| Michael Drayton. 1563–1631 |
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| 120. To the Virginian Voyage |
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| YOU brave heroic minds | |
| Worthy your country's name, | |
| That honour still pursue; | |
| Go and subdue! | |
| Whilst loitering hinds | 5 |
| Lurk here at home with shame. | |
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| Britons, you stay too long: | |
| Quickly aboard bestow you, | |
| And with a merry gale | |
| Swell your stretch'd sail | 10 |
| With vows as strong | |
| As the winds that blow you. | |
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| Your course securely steer, | |
| West and by south forth keep! | |
| Rocks, lee-shores, nor shoals | 15 |
| When Eolus scowls | |
| You need not fear; | |
| So absolute the deep. | |
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| And cheerfully at sea | |
| Success you still entice | 20 |
| To get the pearl and gold, | |
| And ours to hold | |
| Virginia, | |
| Earth's only paradise. | |
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| Where nature hath in store | 25 |
| Fowl, venison, and fish, | |
| And the fruitfull'st soil | |
| Without your toil | |
| Three harvests more, | |
| All greater than your wish. | 30 |
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| And the ambitious vine | |
| Crowns with his purple mass | |
| The cedar reaching high | |
| To kiss the sky, | |
| The cypress, pine, | 35 |
| And useful sassafras. | |
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| To whom the Golden Age | |
| Still nature's laws doth give, | |
| No other cares attend, | |
| But them to defend | 40 |
| From winter's rage, | |
| That long there doth not live. | |
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| When as the luscious smell | |
| Of that delicious land | |
| Above the seas that flows | 45 |
| The clear wind throws, | |
| Your hearts to swell | |
| Approaching the dear strand; | |
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| In kenning of the shore | |
| (Thanks to God first given) | 50 |
| O you the happiest men, | |
| Be frolic then! | |
| Let cannons roar, | |
| Frighting the wide heaven. | |
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| And in regions far, | 55 |
| Such heroes bring ye forth | |
| As those from whom we came; | |
| And plant our name | |
| Under that star | |
| Not known unto our North. | 60 |
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| And as there plenty grows | |
| Of laurel everywhere— | |
| Apollo's sacred tree— | |
| You it may see | |
| A poet's brows | 65 |
| To crown, that may sing there. | |
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| Thy Voyages attend, | |
| Industrious Hakluyt, | |
| Whose reading shall inflame | |
| Men to seek fame, | 70 |
| And much commend | |
| To after times thy wit. | |
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