Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.

Western States: Plains, The

The Plains

By Joaquin Miller (1837–1913)

ROOM! Room to turn round in, to breathe and be free,

And to grow to be giant, to sail as at sea

With the speed of the wind on a steed with his mane

To the wind, without pathway or route or a rein.

Room! Room to be free where the white-bordered sea

Blows a kiss to a brother as boundless as he;

And to east and to west, to the north and the sun,

Blue skies and brown grasses are welded as one,

And the buffalo come like a cloud on the plain,

Pouring on like the tide of a storm-driven main,

And the lodge of the hunter to friend or to foe

Offers rest; and unquestioned you come or you go.

My plains of America! Seas of wild lands!

From a land in the seas in a raiment of foam,

That has reached to a stranger the welcome of home,

I turn to you, lean to you, lift you my hands.