- SUCH the glad soil, from whence Jamaica’s sons
- Derive their opulence: thrice fertile land,
- "The pride, the glory of the sea-girt isles, [90]
- "Which, like to rich and various gems, inlay
- "The unadorned bosom of the deep,”1
-
Which first Columbus’ daring keel2 explor’d.
- DAUGHTERS of Heaven,3 with reverential awe,
- Pause at that godlike name; for not your flights [95]
-
Of happiest fancy, can outsoar his fame.
- COLUMBUS, boast of science, boast of man!
- Yet, by the great, the learned, and the wise,
- Long held a visionary; who, like thee,
- Could brook their scorn; wait seven long years at court, [100]
- A selfish, sullen, dilatory court;
- Yet never from thy purpos’d plan decline?
- No God, no Hero, of poetic times,
- In Truth’s fair annals, may compare with thee!
- Each passion, weakness of mankind, thou knew’st, [105]
- Thine own concealing; firmest base of power:
- Rich in expedients; what most adverse seem’d,
- And least expected, most advanc’d thine aim.
- What storms, what monsters, what new forms of death,
- In a vast ocean, never cut by keel, [110]