Columbus by Joaquin Miller
Today’s poem is courtesy of Johnny Cash (I finished reading Cash: The Autobiography today).
The kind of poetry I really love is the corny stuff: the epic poem about Columbus, I forgot its title, that we read in high school—”Before him not the ghost of land/Before him only shoreless seas”—and in the last verse, after sailing on and on and on, there’s “a light, a light, a lamp!” and he’s found America. How that thrilled me.
—Johnny Cash, Cash: The Autobiography, Part 4, Chapter 1
I don’t think I’ve read the poem before and I had trouble finding much about it online. I’m not sure if this is an excerpt or the entire poem, and the title was not listed anywhere, so I’m calling it Columbus. If you know more about it, please leave a comment for me!
Columbus
By Joaquin Miller
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.
Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?”
“Why, say, ‘Sail on! 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 swarthy cheek.
“What shall I say, brave Admiral, say,
If we sight naught but seas at dawn?”
“Why, you shall say at break of day,
‘Sail on! 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, speak and say”—
He said: “Sail on! sail on! and on!”
They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate:
“This mad sea shows his teeth to-night.
He curls his lip, he lies in wait,
With lifted teeth, as if to bite!
Brave Admiral, say but one good word:
What shall we do when hope is gone?”
The words leapt like a leaping sword:
“Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!”
Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck,
And peered through darkness. Ah, that night
Of all dark nights! And then a speck—
A light! A light! A light! A light!
It grew, a starlit flag unfurled!
It grew to be Time’s burst of dawn.
He gained a world; he gave that world
Its grandest lesson: “On! sail on!”
This poem is by Joaquin Miller. Also, a verse was omitted. See http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/miller01.html
Charlotte,
Thank you so much for the information. I don’t know where I found the attribution to Tyner. Over the years of posting poems, I’ve learned more about fact checking.