Classic Poem

So homeward fared beneath a star-lit sky,
Brooding brim-full of light above the sea;
And passed among the lava-rocks which lie,
Where, from the west, they shield fair Italy;
Passed Monte Cristo, mystic grot! whence he,
The new Aladdin, mystic treasure drew;
And Elba, more mysterious, whence there flew
His eagle last to awe the world again;
Whose lengthening shadow awes it now, as then.

And how one longs for points, though small as these,
Giddy until he finds them! How one craves,
On History's vast blue, amid her seas,
Some rocks, not heaving in her lying waves;
Even the rock the gay romancer leaves
To tell his fairy tale in every tongue;
The rock from which Antaeus, rested, sprung,
When last his thunders on his foes he hurled!
Give man his place to stand, and man can move the world.