 | The poems of Mrs. Emma Catherine Embury |  |
THE LAMENT OF COLUMBUS.
“Until now I have wept for others; have pity upon me, Heaven, and weep for me, earth! In my temporal concerns, without a farthing to give in offering; in spiritual concerns, cast away here in the Indies; isolated in my misery, infirm, expecting each day will be my last; surrounded by cruel savages, separated from the holy sacraments of the Church, so that my soul will be lost if separated here from my body! Weep for me whoever has charity, truth, and justice. I came not on this voyage to gain honor or estate; for all hope of that kind is dead within me. I came to serve your majesties with a sound intention and an honest zeal, and I speak no falsehood.”
Extract of a Letter from Columbus.“He looked upon himself as standing in the hand of Heaven, chosen from among men for the accomplishment of its high purpose. He read, as he supposed, his contemplated discovery foretold in holy writ, and shadowed forth darkly in the mystic revelations of the prophets. The ends of the earth were to be brought together, and all nations and tongues and languages united under the banners of the Redeemer.”
Irving's Life of Columbus. “There is a fireAnd motion of the soul which will not dwell
In its own narrow being [OMITTED]
[OMITTED]
And but once kindled, quenchless evermore,
Preys upon high adventure, nor can tire
Of aught but rest; a fever at the core,
Fatal to him that bears, to all who ever bore.”
Childe Harold.
The vague chimeras of an earth-stained soul,
O'er which the mists of error darkly roll;
For Heaven-sent beams
Have chased the gloom that round my soul was flung,
And pierced the clouds that o'er creation's mysteries hung.
For this high purpose was I set apart—
And though life's cup
Was filled with all earth's agonies, I quaffed
Unmurmuring, for that hope could sweeten any draught.
And laughed to scorn my visionary scheme;
They thought yon glorious sun's resplendent beam
So brightly cheered
And vivified alone the spot of earth
Where they, like worms, had lived and groveled from their birth.
From home and friends my willing steps I turned;
Led by the light that in my spirit burned,
Strange lands I trod;
And lo! new worlds, uncurtained by my hand,
Before th' admiring East in pristine beauty stand.
To recompense the many nameless toils
That won my king a new found empire's spoils?
The smile of Heaven
Blessed him who sought amid those Eden plains
To plant the holy cross; but man's reward was chains.
Amid a land of savages, I wait
From cruel, hostile hands my coming fate;
Or else to fall
While unaneled, unblessed, my spirit must depart.
In pity for my followers, when afar
O'er the wide sea with scarce a guiding star
Our course we kept;
But night winds only o'er my grave shall sigh;
For, bowed with cruel wrongs, on stranger shores, I die.
Of fame or honor led me here again
To tread this weary pilgrimage of pain;
He who must cope
With treachery and wrong, until the flame
Of pure ambition dies, has nought to do with fame.
I came, with zeal unkindness could not chill;
To glorify my God, whose holy will
Taught me to fling
The veil of error from before my eyes,
And teach mankind his power as shown 'neath other skies.
Thou whose bright wonders I have oft explored,
Weep for me heaven! to whose proud heights has soared,
E'en from its birth,
My strong winged spirit in its might alone;
Lo! he who gave new worlds now dies unwept, unknown.
| The poems of Mrs. Emma Catherine Embury | |