I. <br />FOUR hundred years ago a tangled waste <br />Lay sleeping on the west Atlantic's side; <br />Their devious ways the Old World's millions traced <br />Content, and loved, and labored, dared and died. <br />While students still believed the charts they conned, <br />And revelled in their thriftless ignorance, <br />Nor dreamed of other lands that lay beyond <br />Old Ocean's dense, indefinite expanse. <br />II. <br />BUT deep within her heart old Nature knew <br />That she had once arrayed, at Earth's behest, <br />Another offspring, fine and fair to view,— <br />The chosen suckling of the mother's breast. <br />The child was wrapped in vestments soft and fine, <br />Each fold a work of Nature's matchless art; <br />The mother looked on it with love divine, <br />And strained the loved one closely to her heart. <br />And there it lay, and with the warmth grew strong <br />And hearty, by the salt sea breezes fanned, <br />Till Time with mellowing touches passed along, <br />And changed the infant to a mighty land. <br />III. <br />BUT men knew naught of this, till there arose <br />That mighty mariner, the Genoese, <br />Who dared to try, in spite of fears and foes, <br />The unknown fortunes of unsounded seas. <br />O noblest of Italia's sons, thy bark <br />Went not alone into that shrouding night! <br />O dauntless darer of the rayless dark, <br />The world sailed with thee to eternal light! <br />The deer-haunts that with game were crowded then <br />To-day are tilled and cultivated lands; <br />The schoolhouse tow'rs where Bruin had his den, <br />And where the wigwam stood the chapel stands; <br />The place that nurtured men of savage mien <br />Now teems with men of Nature's noblest types; <br />Where moved the forest-foliage banner green, <br />Now flutters in the breeze the stars and stripes!<br /><br />Paul Laurence Dunbar<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/columbian-ode/
