CAPTAIN AND SEAMEN.
Richard E. Burton, in the Denver (Colo.) Times, 1892.
I see a galleon of Spanish make,
That westward like a wingéd creature flies,
Above a sea dawn-bright, and arched with skies
Expectant of the sun and morning-break.
The sailors from the deck their land-thirst slake
With peering o'er the waves, until their eyes
Discern a coast that faint and dream-like lies,
The while they pray, weep, laugh, or madly take
Their shipmates in their arms and speak no word.
And then I see a figure, tall, removed
A little from the others, as behooved,
That since the dawn has neither spoke nor stirred;
A noble form, the looming mast beside,
Columbus, calm, his prescience verified.