Part 30 (1/2)
COLUMBUS
This poem pictures courage and high resolution. To the terrors of an unknown sea and the mutinous dismay of the sailors Columbus has but two things to oppose--his faith and his unflinching will. But these suffice, as they always do. In the last four lines of the poem is a lesson for our nation to-day. The seas upon which our ideals have launched us are perilous and uncharted. In some ways our whole voyage of democracy seems futile. Shall we turn back, or shall we, like Columbus, answer the falterers in words that leap like a leaping sword; ”Sail on, sail on”?
Behind him lay the gray Azores, Behind the Gates of Hercules; Before him not the ghost of sh.o.r.es: Before him only sh.o.r.eless seas.
The good mate said: ”Now must we pray, For lo! the very stars are gone.
Brave Adm'r'l, speak; what shall I say?”
”Why, say: 'Sail on! sail on! and on!'”
”My men grow mutinous day by day; My men grow ghastly wan and weak.”
The stout mate thought of home; a spray Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek.
”What shall I say, brave Adm'r'l, say, If we sight naught but seas at dawn?”
”Why, you shall say at break of day: 'Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!'”
They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow; Until at last the blanched mate said: ”Why, now not even G.o.d would know Should I and all my men fall dead.
These very winds forget their way, For G.o.d from these dread seas is gone.
Now speak, brave Adm'r'l; speak and say--”
He said: ”Sail on! sail on! and on!”
They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate: ”This mad sea shows his teeth to-night.
He curls his lip, he lies in wait, With lifted teeth, as if to bite!
Brave Adm'r'l, say but one good word: What shall we do when hope is gone?”
The words leapt like a leaping sword: ”Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!”
Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck, And peered through darkness. Ah, that night Of all dark nights! And then a speck-- It grew, a starlit flag unfurled!
It grew to be Time's burst of dawn.
He gained a world; he gave that world Its grandest lesson: ”On! sail on!”
_Joaquin Miller._
From ”Joaquin Miller's Complete Poems.”
PER ASPERA
A motto has been made of the Latin phrase ”per aspera ad astra,” of which the translation sometimes given is ”through bolts and bars to the stars.”
Thank G.o.d, a man can grow!
He is not bound With earthward gaze to creep along the ground: Though his beginnings be but poor and low, Thank G.o.d, a man can grow!
The fire upon his altars may burn dim, The torch he lighted may in darkness fail, And nothing to rekindle it avail,-- Yet high beyond his dull horizon's rim, Arcturus and the Pleiads beckon him.
_Florence Earle Coates._