Classic Poem

Can pen of mine describe thee, beauteous land,
Resting in peace, like Avalon of old,
Or happy Isles of the Hesperides,
Clasped in the arms of the caressing sea?

Here roses blow incomparably sweet!
Here sing the birds! And comes a round of days
So beautiful they seem of Heaven a part —
Days dropped from Heaven into the lap of earth!

Here, after months of shipboard — voyages long,
Gales, tropic calms, and pestilential bays,
And wintry circles of Antarctic sea,
His lot who lives upon the deep — I came.

And here, in this terrestrial paradise,
Where enters not harsh cold, nor torrid heat,
Tempered forever by Pacific's wave,
Now would I rest, and give my days to Peace!