Classic Poem

There lurks in every breast some of the fire
That sent Columbus daring unknown seas,
There lurks in every human heart desire
To find new continents. To such as these
The woodland is a world, and continents
They who go seeking shall as surely find
As he who scorned an earth's experience
And left established error far behind.

Let us go forth, as great Columbus sailed,
And we shall find new archipelagoes—
Sequestered paths that only deer have trailed,
Perhaps another continent, who knows?—
Some cloistered valley far from man removed,
Some fragrant clearing hidden in the firs,
Some lily garden man has never loved,
Waiting our coming, the discoverers.

We may not find Americas, but we
Shall feel the thrill that thrilled a greater breast—
Perhaps a mountain that will glimpse the sea,
Beneath a stump perhaps a partridge nest;
We shall make sail across the trackless green,
We shall uncover riches in the flower,
We shall behold new beauties now unseen—
Yea, we shall be Columbus for an hour.