The Boy Columbus

And he had mused on lands each bird,     That winged from realms of Falerina,     O'er seas of the Enchanted Sword,     In romance sang him, till he heard     Vague foam on Islands of Alcina.     For rich Levant and old Castile     Let other seamen freight their galleys;     With Polo he and Mandeville     Through stranger seas a dreamy keel     Sailed into wonder-peopled valleys.     Far continents of flow'r and fruit,     Of everlasting spring; where fountains     'Mid flow'rs, with human faces, shoot;     Where races dwell, both man and brute,     In cities under golden mountains.     Where cataracts their thunders hurl     From heights the tempest has at mercy;     Vast peaks that touch the moon, and whirl     Their torrents down of gold and pearl;     And forests strange as those of Circe.     Let rapiered Love lute, in the shade     Of royal gardens, to the Palace     And Court, that haunt the balustrade     Of terraces and still parade     Their vanity and guile and malice.     Him something calls diviner yet     Than Love, more mighty than a lover;     Heroic Truth that will not let     Deed lag; a purpose, westward set,     In eyes far-seeing to discover.