PART II

THE REVOLUTION

FLAWLESS HIS HEART

Flawless his heart and tempered to the core Who, beckoned by the forward-leaning wave, First left behind him the firm-footed shore, And, urged by every nerve of sail and oar, Steered for the Unknown which gods to mortals gave, Of thought and action the mysterious door, Bugbear of fools, a summons to the brave: Strength found he in the unsympathizing sun, And strange stars from beneath the horizon won, And the dumb ocean pitilessly grave: High-hearted surely he; But bolder they who first off-cast Their moorings from the habitable Past And ventured chartless on the sea Of storm-engendering Liberty: For all earth's width of waters is a span, And their convulsed existence mere repose, Matched with the unstable heart of man, Shoreless in wants, mist-girt in all it knows, Open to every wind of sect or clan, And sudden-passionate in ebbs and flows.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.