The Delta independent., 1903-09-25

When the world of waters was parted
by the stroke of a mighty rod.
Her eyes were first of the lands of earth
TO look on the face of God:
The white mists robed and throned her
and TIE sun in his orbit wide
Bent down from his. ultimate pathway
and claimed her his chosen bride;
And he that had formed and lowered
her with the dover of a royal
queen
Decreed her the strength of mighty hills.
the peace of the plains between:
The silence of utmost desert, and can
yons r.fted and riven,
And Tie musc of wida-fung forests where
strong winds shout to heaven.
Then high and apart he set her, and bade
the gray seas guard.
And the lean sands clutching her gar
ments hem keep stern and solemn
What dreams she knew as she waited!
What strange keels touched her
And feet went into the stiffness and re-
turned to the sea no more.
They passed through her dream Ike
shadows-till she woke one pres-
nant morn,
And watched Magellan's white-winged
ships swing round the ice-bounj
She thrilled to their masterful presage.
those daunt.ess sails from afar,
And laughed as she leaned to the ocean
And men who toiled in the drudging
hives of a world as nat as tioor
Thrilled in their souls to her Laughter
and turned with hand to the door:
And creeds as hoary as ADAM and feuds
Fell deaf on the ear that hearkened and
caught that far refrain;
Into dungeons by light forgotten. and
Hope came with the pale reflection of
And her ,m star a on ama5 the 5sw%oonins coming aiE; t,-,
with its Seething misery
Burst through-as a psnt-up river breaks
through to the healing sea.
Calling-calling- calling - resistless. i'm
perative. strong;
drew them. a mighty throng;
The unmapped seas took tribute of many
a dauntless band.
And many brave hope measured but
bleaching bones in the sand:
Yet for one that fell hundred sprans
out to fill his place.
For death at her call was sweeter than
life IN tanner race.
snew, and bone she drew them; steel
thewed-and the weaklings shrank-
Grim wrought of granite and iron were
the men of her foremost rank.
Stern as the land before them. and
strong as the waters crossed:
Men %ho had Looked on on the face OF de-
Uncrowned rulers and statesmen, shap-
ing their daily need
To the law Of brother with brother. till
tie Woriu $1,000 Dy 10 need.
The sills of n greater empire they hewed
and hammered and turned.
And the torch of a larger freedom from
their blazing hilltops burned:
Till the old ideals that led them grew
dim childhoods dream.
And Caste went down in the balance
and Manhood stood supreme.
The wanderers of earth. turned to her
outcast of the older lands
With n promise of hope in their plead
ing. and she reached them plying
hands:
And she cried to the oId-world cities that
browse by tho Eastern main:
broods: and III send you Men
againi
Greatness is born of greatness, and
b-eadt of breadth profound:
The old Antaean table OF strength re-
newed from the ground
Was human truth for the ages: since
the hour OF the Eden-birth
That man among men was strongest who
stood with his feet on the earth!
Nations are men grown g--ater-wth the
course of their destinies
foreshared In the womb that bore them
to the ultimate fall or rise:
Doomed by dull horizon. or damned by
treadmiif nath
To sink into stolid sumber. or tramplc
the grapes of wrath.
But sfamed by her tame'ess grandeur.
what soul could be mean ard poor?
Upheld by her lofty courage, what heart
would fail to endure?
AZ the blood of the breast that sucked
the Sons I'm Their manhood are
Che has mothercd brood of Ifon's cub..
and thsy bear her n1ma afar.
l.