How in all wonder Columbus got over, <br />That is a marvel to me, I protest, <br />Cabot, and Raleigh too, that well-read rover, <br />Frobisher, Dampier, Drake and the rest. <br />Bad enough all the same, <br />For them that after came, <br />But, in great Heaven's name, <br />How he should ever think <br />That on the other brink <br />Of this huge waste terra firma should be, <br />Is a pure wonder, I must say, to me. <br /> <br />How a man ever should hope to get thither, <br />E'e'n if he knew of there being another side; <br />But to suppose he should come any whither, <br />Sailing right on into chaos untried, <br />Across the whole ocean, <br />In spite of the motion, <br />To stick to the notion <br />That in some nook or bend <br />Of a sea without end <br />He should find North and South Amerikee, <br />Was a pure madness as it seems to me. <br /> <br />What if wise men had, as far back as Ptolemy, <br />Judged that the earth like an orange was round, <br />None of them ever said, 'Come along, follow, <br />Sail to the West, and the East will be found.' <br />Many a day before <br />Ever they'd touched the shore <br />Of the San Salvador, <br />Sadder and wiser men <br />They'd have turned back again; <br />And that he did not, but did cross the sea, <br />Is a pure wonder, I must say, to me. <br />And that he crossed and that we cross the sea <br />Is a pure wonder, I must say, to me.<br /><br />Arthur Hugh Clough<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/how-in-all-wonder/
