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(Excerpt)
NOT vainly Homer saw it in a dream, | |
| Circling the world and bounding continents; | |
| Our shore is girdled by an Ocean Stream, | |
| Which nearest to the Vineyard Sound indents. | |
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| There fringing the azure deep are happy isles, | 5 |
| Which swim in warmth of Equatorial seas, | |
| And gladden in the gracious Summer’s smiles,— | |
| The smallest, nearest us is Penikese. | |
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| A string of pearls they lie on Ocean’s breast, | |
| Steeped in a languor brought them from afar, | 10 |
| And drowse through summer days in silent rest, | |
| Kissed by mild waves and loved of moon and star. | |
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| Once the shy Indian saw his shadow shake | |
| Across the wave, as he withdrew his spear | |
| From the struck bass, or heard within the brake | 15 |
| The tender grass torn by the feeding deer. | |
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| Those dumb, waste centuries of loss are o’er, | |
| A better, nobler day to them succeeds: | |
| Now Science rears her watch-tower by the shore, | |
| Round it are scholars whom a teacher leads. | 20 |
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| The light within the watch-tower is his mind, | |
| Cosmic, with forms of life which end in man; | |
| There all the tribes their place in order find, | |
| As if he read the thought of God’s own plan. * * * * * | |
| Oh! happy ones who read the book of life, | 25 |
| Till ye through him in wisdom daily grow, | |
| To find how far above Earth’s barren strife | |
| Is the soul’s hunger—toil divine—to know. | |
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| What pastoral lives of true simplicity! | |
| Plain living and high thinking, with the bond | 30 |
| Between them of a lofty sympathy, | |
| Whose circlet rings this world and worlds beyond. | |
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| Hail! generous heart which gave its home of years! | |
| Hail, too, ye youth who lean on such a guide! | |
| Long may the shrine which now glad Science rears | 35 |
| Shine like a load-star o’er the waters wide. | |
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