Sail nor keel, nor helm nor oar,
Need I, ask I, to explore

Thine expanse from shore to shore.

By a single glance of thought

Thy whole realm's before me brought, Like the universe, from nought.

All thine aspects now I view,

Ever old, yet ever new;

Time nor tide thy power subdue.

All thy voices now I hear;

Sounds of gladness, grandeur, fear,

Meet and mingle in mine ear.

All thy wonders are revealed,
Treasures hidden in thy field,
From the birth of nature sealed.

But thy depths I search not now, Nor thy liquid surface plough With a billow-breaking prow.

Eager fancy, unconfined,
In a voyage of the mind,
Sweeps along thee like the wind.

Here a breeze, I skim thy plain ; There a tempest, pour amain Thunder, lightning, hail, and rain.

Where the surges never roll
Round the undiscovered pole,

Thence set out, my venturous soul!

See o'er Greenland, cold and wild, Rocks of ice eternal piled;

Yet the mother loves her child,

And the wildernesses drear
To the native's heart are dear;

All love's charities dwell here.

Next on lonely Labrador,

Let me hear the snow-storms roar, Blinding, burying all before.

Yet even here, in glens and coves,
Man the heir of all things roves,

Feasts and fights, and laughs and loves.

But a brighter vision breaks

O'er Canadian woods and lakes;

These my spirit soon forsakes.

Land of exiled liberty,

Where our fathers once were free,
Brave New England! hail to thee!

Pennsylvania, while thy flood

Waters fields unbought with blood,
Stand for peace, as thou hast stood.

The West Indies I behold,
Like the Hesperides of old,
Trees of life with fruits of gold.

No, - a curse is on their soil;
Bonds and scourges, tears and toil,
Man degrade and earth despoil.

Horror-struck, I turn away,
Coasting down the Mexique bay;
Slavery there hath had her day.

Hark! eight hundred thousand tongues Startle midnight with strange songs; England ends her negroes' wrongs.

Loud the voice of freedom spoke,
Every accent split a yoke,
Every word a fetter broke.

South America expands
Forest-mountains, river-lands,
And a nobler race demands.

And a nobler race arise,

Stretch their limbs, unclose their eyes, Claim the earth, and seek the skies.

Gliding through Magellan's Straits,
Where two oceans ope their gates,
What a glorious scene awaits!

The immense Pacific smiles,
Round ten thousand little isles,
Haunts of violence and wiles.

But the powers of darkness yield,
For the Cross is in the field,
And the light of life revealed.

Rays from rock to rock it darts,
Conquers adamantine hearts,
And immortal bliss imparts.

North and west, receding far
From the evening's downward star,
Now I mount Aurora's car:

Pale Siberia's deserts shun,

From Kamschatka's storm-cliffs run,
South and east, to meet the sun.

Jealous China, dire Japan,

With bewildered eyes I scan,

They are but dead seas of man,

Ages in succession find

Forms that change not, stagnant mind,
And they leave the same behind.

Lo! the Eastern Cyclades,

Phoenix-nests and sky-blue seas,

But I tarry not with these.

Pass we drear New Holland's shoals,

Where no ample river rolls,

World of unawakened souls!

Bring them forth; - 't is Heaven's decree.

Man, assert thy liberty;

Let not brutes look down on thee.

Either India next is seen,

With the Ganges stretched between;
Ah! what horrors here have been.

War, disguised as commerce, came;
Britain, carrying sword and flame,
Won an empire, lost her name.