As that great seer, whose animating rod Taught Jacob's sons their wonder-working God, Who led thro dreary wastes the murmuring band, And reach'd the confines of their promised land, Opprest with years, from Pisgah's towering height, On fruitful Canaan feasted long his sight; The bliss of unborn nations warm'd his breast, Repaid his toils and sooth'd his soul to rest; Thus o'er thy subject wave shalt thou behold Far happier realms their future charms unfold, In nobler pomp another Pisgah rise, Beneath whose foot thy new found Canaan lies; There, rapt in vision, hail my favorite clime, And taste the blessings of remotest time. So Hesper spoke; Columbus raised his head; His chains dropt off; the cave, the castle fled. Forth walked the Pair; when steep before them stood; Slope from the town, a heaven-illumined road; That thro disparting shades arose on high, Reach'd o'er the hills, and lengthen'd up the sky, Show'd a clear summit, rich with rising flowers, That breathe their odors thro celestial bowers. O'er the proud Pyrenees it looks sublime, Subjects the Alps, and levels Europe's clime; Spain, lessening to a chart, beneath it swims, And shrouds her dungeons in the void she dims. Led by the Power, the Hero gain'd the height, New strength and brilliance flush'd his mortal sight; When calm before them flow'd the western main, Far stretch'd, immense, a sky-encircled plain. No sail, no isle, no cloud invests the bound, Nor billowy surge disturbs the vast profound; Till, deep in distant heavens, the sun's blue ray Topt unknown cliffs and call'd them up to day; Slow glimmering into sight wide regions drew, And rose and brighten'd on the expanding view; Fair sweep the waves, the lessening ocean smiles, In misty radiance loom a thousand isles; Near and more near the long drawn coasts arise, Bays stretch their arms and mountains lift the skies, The lakes, high mounded, point the streams their way, Slopes, ridges, plains their spreading skirts display, The vales branch forth, high walk approaching groves, And all the majesty of nature moves. O'er the wild hemisphere his glances fly, Its form unfolding as it still draws nigh, As all its salient sides force far their sway, Crowd back the ocean and indent the day. He saw, thro central zones, the winding shore Spread the deep Gulph his sail had traced before, The Darien isthmus check the raging tide, Join distant lands, and neighboring seas divide; On either hand the shores unbounded bend, Push wide their waves, to each dim pole ascend; The two twin continents united rise, Broad as the main, and lengthen'd with the skies.