Читать книгу The Westward Movement - Various - Страница 3

THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT

PEOPLING THE WEST

From Europe's proud, despotic shores

Hither the stranger takes his way,

And in our new-found world explores

A happier soil, a milder sway,

Where no proud despot holds him down,

No slaves insult him with a crown.

From these fair plains, these rural seats,

So long concealed, so lately known,

The unsocial Indian far retreats,

To make some other clime his own,

Where other streams, less pleasing, flow,

And darker forests round him grow.

No longer shall your princely flood

From distant lakes be swelled in vain,

No longer through a darksome wood

Advance unnoticed to the main;

Far other ends the heavens decree—

And commerce plans new freights for thee.

While virtue warms the generous breast,

There heaven-born freedom shall reside,

Nor shall the voice of war molest,

Nor Europe's all-aspiring pride—

There Reason shall new laws devise,

And order from confusion rise.

Philip Freneau.

THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT