Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Oceanica: Vol. XXXI. 1876–79. | | | | Various Islands: Madeira | | Madeira | | Michael Drayton (1563–1631) |
| | (From Poly-Olbion)
THEN Macham, who (through love to long adventures led) | |
| Medera’s wealthy Isles the first discoveréd, | |
| Who having stolen a maid, to whom he was affied, | |
| Yet her rich parents still her marriage rites denied, | |
| Put with her forth to sea, where, many a danger past, | 5 |
| Upon an isle of those at length by tempest cast; | |
| And putting in, to give his tender love some ease, | |
| Which very ill had brooked the rough and boisterous seas; | |
| And lingering for her health within the quiet bay, | |
| The mariners most false fled with the ship away, | 10 |
| When as it was not long but she gave up her breath; | |
| When he whose tears in vain bewailed her timeless death, | |
| That their deservéd rites her funeral could not have, | |
| A homely altar built upon her honored grave. | |
| When with his folk but few, not passing two or three, | 15 |
| There making them a boat, but rudely of one tree, | |
| Put forth again to sea, where after many a flaw, | |
| Such as before themselves scarce mortal ever saw, | |
| Nor miserable men could possibly sustain, | |
| Now swallowed with the waves, and then spewed up again, | 20 |
| At length were on the coast of sunburnt Affrick thrown, | |
| T’ amaze that further world, and to amuse our own. | | | | |
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