THE
GOLDEN WEST
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IN the
golden dawn of the world,
When man emerged
From the mysterious East,
With the breath of life in his mouth,
And the tell-tale trace
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| Of the
red clay still on his face.
He turned with inquisitive gaze,
A child of the light,
To follow the track of the sun
Through the void far blue,
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Seeing
it sink to rest
In a glorious golden West.
Then an unassuageable urge
Awoke in his blood,
The brooding spirit of Earth
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Whispered
a word in his heart,
And man went forth on the trail,
Knowing he should not fail.
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II
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And
the slow centuries
Measured his toilsome march,
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While
ever his face was set
To lands that lie beyond
The going down of the sun,
Where endeavor’s requital is won.
From Egypt and Greece and Tyre,
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From
Assyria and Rome,
With color and pomp and joy,
Laughter and chants and war,
Moved the great caravan
Of wandering man.
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Conquering mountain and sea,
Spreading through forest and plain,
Crossing the outer flood,—
The rim of the ancient world,—
He passed over new domain
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| Like
the hosts of sweeping rain.
Traversing prairie and wood,
Waterway, desert, and range,
At last by the ultimate shore
Of the ageless sea
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His
pack-trains come to rest
In our golden West.
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III
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Here
have the most high Ones,
The Overlords of the world,
The Archangels of man,
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Brought
their earth children at last,
To the happy land prepared
For those who have labored and dared.
O men and women born
Of the teeming and holy earth,
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And
led through the myriad years
By the impulse and vision divine,
Behold now what shall be done
With the heritage we have won?
Here with an empire to use,
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Wealth
beyond Solomon’s dream,
And the balm and respite of peace,
In a garden of the world,
What is the news or the plan
Of Twentieth Century man?
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IV
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I heard
the Sierras reply,
Rank after rank as they rose
Through the golden and violet light,
"The destined days are at hand,
When my children shall arise
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| And
assume the heroic guise
"From the beginning designed
For the seraphs, and sons of earth.
They shall put off envy and fear,
And skulking merciless greed,
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And
be girded against all ills
With the vigor and poise of the hills.
"Here on this border of time
Where mighty morrows are born,
Emerging from ages of dream
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And
the dust of unreason and strife,
They shall grow wise and humane
With a gladness virile and sane.
"Primal in beauty and pride,
Christian in kindness and calm,
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Modern
in knowledge and skill,
Sons of the morning, arise—
Earth’s awaited and best—
From the golden West!"
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