Columbus

Columbus He heard the Voices — they whose whispers stir The aimless ages to direction, gird New globes with purpose; set a winged spur To progress, and with breathless, regnant word Startle a million signals to be heard Forever through Life's vain, inconstant whir. In his unfriended vigils, when the sprays Of unknown seas beat at the groping prow Of restless caravel, through leaden days Of doubt and mutiny, his sentient brow Caught palm-spiced airs — and the insistent vow Of his still Voices, through the uncharted ways. So in his darker moments, when the chains Of ingrates held him helpless, and there grew The empty days, set thick with hopeless pains — Haply across his jaded spirit flew A wind from out the dim, uncharted blue Laden with scent of waiting, flower-grown lanes. And from their haven he has seen the land His frail bark sighted, through the centuries grow From trackless plain and forest, printless sand, To cities, nations, harbors, where the flow Of countless peoples, seeking to and fro, Find refuge from Oppression's girded hand. A peerless recompense — that guerdon, won So sorely in a hard and sightless hour; The gathered lusters of Time's orbit run To swell the priceless light that is its dower, The fires of liberty — Columbia's power — - Rise endless and insistent as the sun. And still shall rise, unhindered by the smoke Of alien pyres, heaped high with human rights, No murk of old-world tyranny shall choke That mounting flame whose stainless signal lights The way of nations up to unseen heights — Nor its high mission to the world revoke! Josephine Spencer