University of Virginia Library

ELDORADO.

Field on field,
Glittering in the sunset, like a golden shield,
'Gainst its levelled lances
In defence upheaving,
Spreads the sea.
As the low light glances,

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Webs of purple weaving
O'er the liquid lea,
Islands in the setting,
Of the sun's begetting,
From the Western distance slowly rise to be.
Isle on isle,
Glamorous in the glory of the sunset's smile,
Where the billows shimmer,
'Gainst the skyline showing,
In the West,
There fore'er they glimmer,
Worlds past mortal knowing,
Islands of the Blest,
Where, since Adam chased was
Forth of Eden, placed was
Of man's thought the portal of the Lands of Rest.
Line on line,
Black against the blazon of the sunset-shine,
Birds each other, flying,
Follow, like beads threaded
On a string,
To the Westward hieing,
Whence the darkness dreaded
Rises, hovering;
Tow'rd the distance golden,
Where the night is holden,
Year in, year out, seeking none knows what, they wing.
Year by year,
When, with Spring returning, once again they're here,
Many a mate behind them
In the darkling distance
Left have they.
Did these others find them,
In some new existence,

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Fair and far away,
What they sought or lonely,
Dropped and died they only,
As in this our weary world of night and day?
Hour by hour,
Friends and comrades leave us, by some viewless power
From the daylight driven,
Tow'rd the unknown regions
By some breath
Blown of Hell or Heaven;
Whence, of all their legions,
None, returning, saith
If their Eldorado,
In that world of shadow,
They their land of promise found or only death.