V.

A new earth's verdurous magnificence
Seems from a recent deluge to emerge:

Lakes with a thousand islands gemm'd; immense
Forests, and far along the horizon's verge
Blue mountains cresting like the ocean's surge;
Earth-shaking rush of falls, and roar of flood,
And fell oft seam'd by the tornado's scourge;
These bards have sung, in sad or lively mood,
But their auxiliar charms remain yet to be woo'd.

VI.

Yet o'er America must nature grand

Her imagery rare hereafter show

To the clear-sighted poet; in that land

She may have riches Wordsworths do not know;

Her Helicons, whence streams untasted flow.

And illustrations beautiful to draw

From new phenomena, above, below,

Genius will thirst, with rapture and with awe Beholding sights that hitherto unheeding craftsmen saw.

VII.

Sculpture need not ideal forms contrive,
Nor painting borrow from the Italian clime
Its flush of beauty; loveliest models live
To wake the artist's genius, in spring-time

Of youth; then for the muse what scenes sublime!
While sculpture may embody moral worth,
Beauty wooes painting; for the loftier rhym
Nature in all her majesty shines forth:

Her new apocalypse appears from the Occident and
North.

VIII.

Meanwhile activity on restless wing Flies on, inventive industry her guide; In the new world, of enterprise the spring Is felt, rolls thither population's tide, And unpruned forests perish in their pride : To-day, a vigorous race push, unappall'd By danger, mighty labours far and wide; To-morrow, farms will thrive and cities wall'd, Where late through herbage rank amphibious monsters crawl'd.

IX.

And bright-eyed science, like the morning star,
Illumes the land that liberty hath blest:
Progressing still in knowledge, thousands are
(Labour their pleasure is, their unrest, rest)
Spreading their bloodless triumphs o'er the West;
Millions shall through far distant valleys be
Of treasures, undeveloped yet, possest:

Colossal empire of the great and free!

Strong is thy youth, who can thy strength adult foresee?

How from a grain of mustard-seed has grown This noble tree, o'ershadowing the earth! Thousands have to its grateful shelter flown From scathe of persecution fierce, a dearth Producing, where she smote the soil, of worth! Regenerate through the land by crime unstain'd, There Liberty has had her second birth; Mightier in virtue than enthusiasts feign'd Her to be in those days at Athens when she reign'd.

X.

When all particular interests are bound

Up with the state, each feels that the dispraise
Of his loved land is an attempt to wound

His own self love, he to the stranger's gaze

A morbid sensibility betrays.

Who dares affirm, (the American denies)

That the sun shines elsewhere with brighter rays? That Albion with her glorious daughter vies

In beauty, valour, wealth, aught nature, art, supplies?

XI.

Democracy, gigantic, fickle power,

Acts on the government by fits and starts,
Repealing by her fiat laws an hour

Ago she will'd. What are the counter-arts

By which the state-machine repairs its parts?

It is the home-religion's gentle sway,

That to extravagant spirits peace imparts;

Of institutions new the only stay,

When young equality would break and cast their bonds

away.

XII.

Religion, order, law, the triple cord
Of states, self-honouring liberty admires;
She wields, to vindicate her rights, the sword,
But checks her sons' inordinate desires,

And strikes not when caprice her aid requires.
Noble is her ambition-to increase

Man's happiness, not kindle raging fires

Of war throughout the world, but arts of peace To multiply, and mind from thraldom base release.

XIII.

Union is strength, and keen intelligence
The ties that union framed still closer draws;
And intercourse is quicken'd by it, hence
An uniformity of manners, laws-

Hence mutual wants of peaceful trade the cause.
Where vast streams cut illimitable plains
The wheel of commerce turns without a pause:
No barriers to improvement mountain-chains ;
Nought is achieved while yet unlabour'd soil remains.

XIV.

What if the federal Union be dissolved ?

The states remain, and knowledge must increase,
As plans of generous policy evolved

From unity of action promise peace—

As strife between the few and many cease: Nathless the Union will through ages last, Firmer than the Achæan league of Greece; History records not, in her annals past, Like brotherhood of states, strong, war-defying, vast.

XV.

Affections, language, principles the same,
Maintain the Union more than balanced powers.

Since individual states too often claim
Supremacy, opinion proudly towers,
Opposed to reason, that retiring cowers;
The sacred federation has a charm,

E'en when the cloud of faction o'er it lowers,

That fails not to avert the threatened harm;

The charm of names that aye the hearts of freemen

warm.

XVI.

Great Washington! in simple grandeur shines
Thy glory, far above the vulgar glare

Of Cæsar's--gems there are that heaven refines,
Till they have nothing earthy-oh! how fair

L