Amidst the seas serene:
It seems some fair enchanted isle,
Like that which saw Miranda's smile
When Ariel sang unseen.

'Oh happy, after all their fears,
Were those old Lusian mariners
Who hailed that land the first,
Upon whose seared and aching eyes,
With an enrapturing surprise,
Its bloom of verdure burst.

'Their anchor in a creek, shell-paven,
They dropped,--and hence "The Holy Haven"
They named the welcome land:
The breezes strained their masts no more,
And all around the sunny shore
Was summer, laughing bland.

'They wandered on through green arcade
Where fruits were hanging in the shades,
And blossoms clustering fair;
Strange gorgeous insects shimmered
And from the brakes sweet minstrelsy
Entranced the woodland air.

'Years passed, and to the island came
A mariner of unknown name,
And grave Castilian speech:
The spirit of a great emprise
Aroused him, and with flashing eyes
He paced the pebbled beach.

'What time the sun was sinking slow,
And twilight spread a rosy glow
Around its single star,
His eye the western sea's expanse
Would search, creating by its glance
Some cloudy land afar.

'He saw it when translucent even
Shed mystic light o'er earth and heaven,
Dim shadowed on the deep;
His fancy tinged each passing cloud
With the fine phantom, and he bowed
Before it in his sleep.

'He hears grey-bearded sailors tell
How the discoveries befell
That glorify their time;
"And forth I go, my friends," he cries,
"To a severer enterprise
Than tasked your glorious prime.

'"Time was when these green isles that stud
The expanse of this familiar flood,
Lived but in fancy fond.
Earth's limits--think you here they are?
Here has the Almighty fixed His bar,
Forbidding glance beyond?

'"Each shell is murmuring on the shore,
And wild sea-voices evermore
Are sounding in my ear:
I long to meet the eastern gale,
And with a free and stretching sail
Through virgin seas to steer.

'"Two galleys trim, some comrades stanch,
And I with hopeful heart would launch
Upon this shoreless sea.
Till I have searched it through and through.
And seen some far land looming blue,