Poems of America (1882) (14782996865)

Identifier: poemsofamerica00long (find matches)
Title: Poems of America
Year: 1882 (1880s)
Authors: Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882, ed
Subjects: American poetry
Publisher: Boston, New York, Houghton, Mifflin and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation



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loomed the obstacles that held me back;^AnA. now I see, at length, the broad PacificRolling far westward in the sunsets track;And now I know how that discoverer Spanish, Balboa, his long toilsome journey made.One first glimpse caught, in fear the whole mightvanish,A mirage, — dropped upon his knees and prayed. The Sunset Seal The noblest and the broadest Of all tlie oceans girdling wave-washed earth;The calmest, gentlest, yet at times the maddest, In raving paroxysms of stormy mirth.The Eagles continent its eastern border; Its western, that on which one half mankindSit under despotisms of deadly order And bow to superstitions old as blind. And yet how near together, spite of distance, Stand the two mighty continents, to-day !How nearly, at this stage of mans existence. Current to current makes its powerful way !Within this Golden Gate, the noblest, surely, Of all the entrances of all the seas.The Asian barks-of-hope float in securely. And furl their lateen sails, aiid ride at ease.
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SAN FRANCISCO. 197 To prove that land to land is eacli a neighbor, Thoiigli leagues unnumbered stretch between thetwain;To compHcate the problem vexed, of labor, And aid, one day, perhaps, to make it plain;Wliile westward stretches, to the Orient boundless, An influence mighty, from the Land of Gold,Of which no hope can eer be vain or groundless Till all the New has leavened all the Old. The Golden Gate, indeed! where chffs stand sentry, And mountains heavenward lift their giant forms,And western gales make rough and dangerous entry To havens that shut away the wildest storms, —rit index for the marvellous City, rising To granite strength from whelming waves andsands, —In wealth, in vice, in power, in good, surprising, — Most strange anomaly of human hands ! The Golden Gate, indeed ! — when morning flashes Its cloudless splendors oer wave, cliff, and height,When wild the surf on rocky Lobos dashes. Then glorious, grand, exhilarant, and bright;But crowned supreme, wlien cloudla