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August 21, 1868
BROTHERS, whom we may not reach | |
| Through the veil of alien speech, | |
| Welcome! welcome! eyes can tell | |
| What the lips in vain would spell,— | |
| Words that hearts can understand, | 5 |
| Brothers from the Flowery Land! | |
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| We, the evening’s latest born, | |
| Hail the children of the morn! | |
| We, the new creation’s birth, | |
| Greet the lords of ancient earth, | 10 |
| From their storied walls and towers | |
| Wandering to these tents of ours! | |
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| Land of wonders, fair Cathay, | |
| Who long hast shunned the staring day, | |
| Hid in mists of poet’s dreams | 15 |
| By thy blue and yellow streams,— | |
| Let us thy shadowed form behold,— | |
| Teach us as thou didst of old. | |
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| Knowledge dwells with length of days; | |
| Wisdom walks in ancient ways; | 20 |
| Thine the compass that could guide | |
| A nation o’er the stormy tide, | |
| Scourged by passions, doubts, and fears, | |
| Safe through thrice a thousand years! | |
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| Looking from thy turrets gray, | 25 |
| Thou hast seen the world’s decay,— | |
| Egypt drowning in her sands,— | |
| Athens rent by robbers’ hands,— | |
| Rome, the wild barbarian’s prey, | |
| Like a storm-cloud swept away: | 30 |
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| Looking from thy turrets gray, | |
| Still we see thee. Where are they? | |
| And lo! a new-born nation waits, | |
| Sitting at the Golden Gates | |
| That glitter by the sunset sea,— | 35 |
| Waits with outspread arms for thee! | |
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| Open wide, ye gates of gold, | |
| To the Dragon’s banner-fold! | |
| Builders of the mighty wall, | |
| Bid your mountain barriers fall! | 40 |
| So may the girdle of the sun | |
| Bind the East and West in one, | |
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| Till Mount Shasta’s breezes fan | |
| The snowy peaks of Ta-Sieue-Shan,— | |
| Till Erie blends its waters blue | 45 |
| With the waves of Tung-Ting-Hu,— | |
| Till deep Missouri lends its flow | |
| To swell the rushing Hoang-Ho! | |
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