Columbus’ Birthday
Behind him lay the gray Azores,
Behind the gates of Hercules;
Before him not the ghost of shores.
Before him only shoreless seas.
The good mate said: “Now must we pray
For lo! the very stars are gone;
Speak, Admiral, what shall I say?
“Why say, sail on! and on!”
“My men grow mutinous day by day;
My men grow ghastly wan and weak.”
The stout mate thought of home; a spray
Of salt wave washed his swathy cheek.
“What shall I say, brave Admiral,
If we sight naught but seas at dawn?”
“Why, you shall say, at break of day:
‘Sail on! Sail on! and on!'”
They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow,
Until at last the blanched mate said;
“Why, now, not even God would know
Should I and all my men fall dead.
These very winds forget their way,
For God from these dread seas is gone.
Now speak, brave Admiral, and say—”
He said: “Sail on! and on!”
They sailed, they sailed, then spoke his mate:
“This mad sea shows his teeth tonight,
He curls his lip, he lies in wait,
With lifted teeth as if to bite!
Brave Admiral, Say but one word;
What shall we do when hope is gone?
“The words leaped as a leaping sword:
“Sail on! Sail on! and on!”
Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck,
And peered through darkness all that night
Of all dark nights; and then a speck!
A light! a light! a light! a light!
It grew to be a star-lit flag unfurled!
It grew to be Time’s burst of dawn;
He gained a world! he gave that world
Its grandest lesson: “On and on!”
—Joaquin Miller.
Alternate Reading: John 7: 37-52.