Admetus and other poems / Emma Lazarus [electronic text]

HOW LONG!

How long, and yet how long, Our leaders will we hail from over seas, Masters and kings from feudal monarchies, And mock their ancient song With echoes weak of foreign melodies?

That distant isle mist-wreathed, Mantled in unimaginable green, Too long hath been our mistress and our queen. Our fathers have bequeathed Too deep a love for her our hearts within.

She made the whole world ring With the brave exploits of her children strong, And with the matchless music of her song. Too late, too late we cling To alien legends, and their strains prolong.

This fresh young world I see, With heroes, cities, legends of her own; With a new race of men, and overblown By winds from sea to sea, Decked with the majesty of every zone.

I see the glittering tops Of snow-peaked mounts, the wid'ning vale's expanse Large prairies where free herds of horses prance, Exhaustless wealth of crops, In vast, magnificent extravagance.

These grand, exuberant plains, These stately rivers, each with many a mouth, The exquisite beauty of the soft-aired south, The boundless seas of grains, Luxuriant forests' lush and splendid growth.

The distant siren-song Of the green island in the eastern sea, Is not the lay for this new chivalry. It is not free and strong To chant on prairies 'neath this brilliant sky.

The echo faints and fails; It suiteth not, upon this western plain, Our voice or spirit; we should stir again The wilderness, and make the plain Resound unto a yet unheard-of strain.