"The United Seas"

by Robert W. Rogers

So the true from every land, vast armies of welcome guests, they come!—
The sons of kings and nobles and the late-increasing hosts of freemen, so innumerable,
To see the passing of provincial national life.

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And our imagination now hears the mighty tread of pilgrims,
And sees this Western paradise bestirred in final preparation for its festive attire—
Our Rocky's wide slope, within its hidden laboratories,
By some chemical's new magic hastening to make more enchanting its coast-wide tribute of flowers;
If possible more stately its redwoods, more mighty its hills;
And our stars in the heavens are brightening their lights
To welcome the long caravans from the nations,
The ships from all the seas,—
To a ceremony epochal, from dawn into days worthily prolonged.

* * * * *

For the silvery Queen of Night will tarry in a veiled appreciation
Until the powerful King of Day comes resplendent from the east, in a new vernal splendor,
While the globe, electrified and cabled into hearing,
With its armies momentarily halting in embarrassed meditation,
Will quiver with attention at the dawn of that momentous day
When it is authoritatively announced:
That the tumultuous Atlantean stalwart, the first born of the east
And the interminable Austral ocean, gentle empress of the west,
Have been joined in the tidal grasp of a spheric wedlock
Uniting two hemisphere estates.
Sure to be conducive to international progress,
Prophetic of a planetary brotherhood,
And bravely resolute for world-peace.

* * * * *

Yes, in spite of war and carnage,
The invincible human spirit will then escape the thralldom of a temporary despair;
For in this land of hope and courage, which is a prophecy of the world to be,
Where the strong sons of freedom's pioneers still breathe a bracing air,
And drink a freeman's water fresh from every hill—and not human blood with warring kings—
Here, the vision so transforming,
The vision of our fathers, will become the vision of all the sons of men!

* * * * *

Here, where reason and not hate is peculiarly creative,
Where the intelligence of peace is so successful—and not the blind force of retrogressive men—
Here, the new spirit of World Democracy, still youthful like David, must be strengthened to slay the European Goliath;
To defy Mar's staggering bluff and check the antiquated ambition of war.
For not only will the vision of our fathers become the vision of all the sons of men,
But the resolution of their heroes is also to become the purpose of the race!

* * * * *