University of Virginia Library

1

Pilgrims!—The choir of their adventured days
Sounds to the living, inward ear, and tho'
Their eyes are quenched, their lips are dumb with dust,
Yet, in imperishable communion,
Clear thro' the soundless retrospect of time,
Well may our spirits now to theirs respond.
For we who, in their stead, bear up the fire,
Bear on the torch of life's inherent faith
And inconsiderate will, may well discern,
Illustrious in their lives, the Pilgrim Soul
Of Man on its eternal pilgrimage. ...
Yes, for their deeds bear witness! Yes, for they,
Lit by some spark of the Promethean fire,
Publish their own recognizance,—afford
Proof of the Lord's dominion in his house,—
And by the old, the indefectible signs
Show how they earned their stern and splendid name!
O hearts of perished men, how shall we learn
Your secret, save as all your acts record
What angers vexed you and what loves fulfilled?
And well we know of these most arduous men,
At least, that here, across the bitter sea,
They rashly ventured into peril and exile
Not for renown or power or merchandise,—
Not for the world's remembrance or reward!
Rather they went abroad with the new Gods
Of their deliverance, for in new, clear wise
Their hearts received the old, austere, divine,
Tremendous guidance of the Cloud and Flame
Which lead the spirit out of bondage, move
Thro' waste and sea to bring the Pilgrim home.
Theirs was no profitable enterprise
Of traffic or of conquering caravels;
Rather their ships were ventured as the soul
Of man goes forth on life's storm-shadowed sea,
To find that better place where dreams come true
Of God's fresh purpose in the heart, and where
Liberty prospers in the wilderness! ...

2

O let us now return in thought and love
To these rebellious men!—that here and now
Their stern remembrance in the House of Life
May rouse at last the Lord of Life from sleep:
Lest we grow tired and tame and temperate;
Lest we grow stable, settled and secure;
Lest we no longer hear the voice, discern
The light that made them Pilgrims; lest our minds
Scant the truth's welcome; lest our hearts forego
The labour and liberality of love;
Lest we forget that still the Pilgrimage
Fills the long prospect of the Pilgrim Soul!
We are the Pilgrims!—Shall we less deserve,
Than they deserved, that stern and splendid name?
Or, less than they, afford the rightful Heir
His incommensurable heritage?
Rather, as now the light of truth expands
In statelier vistas to the inward eye;—
Rather, as now, with more perfected faith
And more religious ecstasy, we learn
That life and destiny and death and time
And God and all the long captivities,
Creeds and enslavements of the mind of man,
Which tamed the heart and set, on every hand,
Brief bounds to life's insatiable hope,
Are but the myths and symbols of the spirit,
Garments outworn and mansions long outgrown;—
Therefore, as truth is merciless and just
And perfect as each one of us must be,
Inexorably and with deliberate feet
Let us of these and all dead dreams and things
Tread down the dust into the common way,
That man may liberally advance!—for thus
May we with haughtier strength and hardihood
Send forth the vagrant and victorious soul
From dreams and desolate insanities
And gross deceptions of the solid world,
Into the shining night, on to the Road! ...
Well may we know it lies before us still,
Who are the Pilgrims, as it stretched for them
Whose pilgrimage is done!—the self-same road,
Hazardous, hard, unknown, which leads afar,
Thro' lusts and lies, thro' laws and governments,
Thro' settled customs and established creeds,—
Thro' all substantial things and sensible forms.
And well for us if we may find it out,
And walk thereon our spiritual way
Forward to real achievements and progressions,—
Pilgrims, as once they were, in high resolve
Launched on the Pilgrimage that once was theirs! ...