COLUMBUS-WESTWARD.*

Behind him lay the gray Azores,
Behind the Gates of Hercules;
Before him not the ghost of shores,
Before him only shoreless seas.

The good mate said: "Now we must pray,
For lo, the very stars are gone.
Brave Adm'r'l speak; what shall I say?
"Why say: Sail on! sail on! sail 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! sail on!

999

They sailed and sailed, as the winds might

blow,

Until at last the blanched mate said: "Why, not even God would know

Should I and all my men fall dead.

*In a recent critical article, in the London Athenæum is the sentence: "In point of power, workmanship and feeling, among all the poems written by Americans, we are inclined to give first place to the Port of Ships or Columbus) by Joaquin Miller."

These very winds forget their way,

For God from these dread seas is gone. Now speak, brave Adm'r'l; speak and say"He said: "Sail on! sail on! sail on!”

They sailed. They sailed.

the mate:

Then spake

"This mad sea shows its teeth to-night. He curls his lips, 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 as a leaping sword:
"Sail on! sail on! sail on! sail on!"

Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck, And peered through darkness. Ah, that night

Of all dark nights! And then a speck
A light! A light! A light! A light!
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.

THE DAY IS DONE.

The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.

I see the lights of the village

Gleam through the rain and the mist, And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me, That my soul cannot resist :

A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only

As the mist resembles the rain.

Come, read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of day.

Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards* sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of Time

For, like strains of martial music,
Their mighty thoughts suggest

* hands ancient noata

Life's endless toil and endeavor;
And to-night I long for rest.

Read from some humbler poet,

Whose songs gushed from his heart, As showers from the clouds of summer, Or tears from the eyelids start;

Who, through long days of labor;
And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
Of wonderful melodies.

Such songs have power to quiet
The restless pulse of care,
And come like the benediction*
That follows after prayer.

Then read from the treasured volume
The poem of thy choice,

And lend to the rhyme of the poet
The beauty of thy voice.

And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares that infest the day,

Shall fold their tents like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.

benediction, blessing.

-Longfellow.

THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS.

The breaking waves dashed high on a stern and rock-bound coast,

And the woods against a stormy sky their giant branches tossed;

And the heavy night hung dark the hills and waters o'er,

When a band of exiles moored their bark on the wild New England shore.

Not as the conqueror comes, they the truehearted, came ;

Not with the roll of stirring drums, and the

trumpet that sings of fame;

Not as the flying come, in silence and in fear; They shook the depths of the desert gloom with their hymns of lofty cheer.

Amidst the storm they sang, and the stars heard, and the sea;

And the sounding aisles of the dim woods. rang with the anthems of the free:

The ocean eagle soared from his nest by the white wave's foam,

And the rocking pines of the forest roared

this was their welcome home!