Amid a glorious city, woke to light He who threw back a double radiance pure; And that blue sea! ’Twas as an angel bright, Beck’ning the child to fame and fortune sure. How lovingly its waters kissed his feet! How graceful yielded, as to lure away The young enthusiast! Should he fail to meet The ceaseless chime, forbidding him to stay. The _man_, the _hour_ were found, and from that time His soul was girded for its task sublime: To struggle on, through error’s endless maze; To bear contempt, and poverty, and pain; To wait for royal favor’s fickle rays;— To find a world beyond the western main! III.—COLUMBUS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PAVIA. Here was the manna for his hungry soul; And here the fount for which he’d thirsted long. Though yet his years were few, none might control His mighty yearnings, or his purpose strong. Ah! it is joy to watch the spark divine, To feel it struck, as thought encounters thought! What deep, exulting happiness was thine, When to thine aid long-hidden lore was brought, And thou, Columbus! didst believe the skies Stooped down to nerve thee for thy high emprise! ’Twas well thou hadst the witness in thine heart, Or thou hadst fainted in thy weary way; Though hope “deferred,” though anguish were thy part, Faith shed a halo round thee day by day. IV.—COLUMBUS ARRIVES IN SPAIN. What veiléd glory, and what strange disguise, We meet in by-ways of this wondrous earth! How oft the “angel” to our scaléd eyes Seems but a “stranger” guest of mortal birth! Met with cold words, or, haply, careless mirth, Known only when he’s passed into the skies. Columbus asks for bread![2] None see the ties Which link him to the future home and hearth Of unborn millions. Thus, the glorious day Oft dawns in clouds, while the cold, ceaseless rain Fills up each pause in the wind’s moaning strain, And forms of evil seem to haunt our way. The sky seems brightest when the clouds depart! Earth-woes make heaven still dearer to the heart. ----- [2] On his first arrival in Spain, Columbus asked for bread and water for his child, at the convent of La Rabida. V.—COLUMBUS BEFORE THE COUNCIL.[3]