Classic Poem

I

Songs for the tameless tamers,
The tamers of the seas;
Songs for the stout old sailors
Who harnessed every breeze,
Who through the seas of darkness
By unknown winds were whirled;
Proud Drake and stout Magellan,
The girdlers of the world.

And songs for Henry Hudson,
Wherever he may be,
Whose bones have bleached three hundred years
Beneath his northern sea.
Songs for the grim old sailors,
Men of heroic pith,
Yea, songs for old John Cabot,
And songs for brave John Smith.

Songs for La Salle, the dauntless,
And songs for strong Champlain;
For good Marquette and Joliet,
For Crockett, Boone, and Kane.
Songs for the pioneer vanguard,
Who ploughed uncharted floods,
And laid the sites of cities
Within the roadless woods.

II

Songs for all pioneering,
And all are pioneers:
All sailors from an anchorage
That fronts the tide of years.
And each man sails an ocean
No other sailed before,
And each man findeth for himself
An undiscovered shore.

Sail on across the morning,
Sail forth beyond the night,
Sail forth and trust the eternal winds
To blow your bark aright;
And every day shall greet you,
New phase of wave or breeze,
The moonlight on new headlands,
The sunlight on new seas.

Still sail the tameless tamers,
The tamers of the seas;
Still sail the stout old sailors
Who harness every breeze;
Still through the seas of darkness
By unknown winds are whirled
Proud Drakes and stout Magellans,
The girdlers of the world.