t has flown, to sing
Solemn and long
A most undaunted song."

This was the song that she herself had taught me how to sing:
.... As immigrants come toward America
On their continual ships out of the past,
So on my ship America have I, by birth,
Come forth at last
From all the bitter corners of the earth.
And I have ears to hear the westward wind blowing
And I have eyes to look beyond the scope Of sea
And I have hands to touch the hands
Of shipmates who are going
Wherever I go and the grace of knowing
That what for them is hope
Is hope for me.
I come from many times and many lands,
I look toward life and all that it shall hold,
Past bound and past divide.
And I shall be consoled
By a continent as wide
As the round invisible sky.
.... "The unseen shall become the seen....
O Celia, be my Spanish Queen!
The Genoan am I!"
And Celia cried:
"My jewels, they are yours,
Yours for the journey. Use them well.
Go find the new world, win the shores
Of which the old books tell!
.... Yet will they listen, poet? Will they sail with you?
Will they not call you dreamer of a dream?
Will they not laugh at you, because you seem
Concerned with words that people often say
And deeds they never do?"
The bright sails of my caravel shook seaward in reply:
"Though I be told
A thousand facts to hold
Me back, though the old boundary
Rise up like hatred in my way,
Though fellow-voyagers cry,
'A lie!'--
Here as I come with heaven at my side
None of the weary words they say
Remain with me,
I am borne like a wave of the sea
Toward worlds to be....
And, young and bold,
I am happier than they--
The timid unbelievers who grow old!"

She interceded: "How impatient, how unkind
You are! What secret do you know
To keep you young?
Age comes with keen and accurate advance
Against youth's lightly handled lance.
Age is an ancient despot that has wrung
All hearts."... My answer was the song forever sung:
"This that I need to know I know--
Onpouring and perpetual immigrants,
We join a fellowship beyond America
Yet in America....
Beyond the touch of age, my Celia,
In you, in me, in everyone, we join God's growing mind.
For in no separate place or time, or soul, we find
Our meaning. In one mingled soul reside
All times and places. On a tide
Of mist and azure air
We journey toward that soul, through