To the California Pioneers
by Joaquin Miller
READ IN SAN FRANCISCO 1894
ow swift this sand, gold-laden, runs!- How slow these feet, once swift and firm!
- Ye came as romping, rosy sons,
- Come jocund up at College term;
- Ye came so jolly, stormy, strong,
- Ye drown'd the roll-call with your song.
- But now ye lean a list'ning ear
- And-"Adsum! Adsum! I am here!"
- My brave world-bearers of a world
- That tops the keystone, star of States,
- All hail! Your battle flags are furled
- In fruitful peace. The golden gates
- Are won. The jasper walls be yours.
- Your sun sinks down yon soundless shores.
- Night falls. But lo! your lifted eyes
- Greet gold outcroppings in the skies.
- Companioned with Sierra's peaks
- Our storm-born eagle shrieks his scorn
- Of doubt or death, and upward seeks
- Through unseen worlds the coming morn.
- Or storm, or calm, or near, or far,
- His eye fixed on the morning star,
- He knows, as God knows, there is dawn;
- And so keeps on, and on, and on!
- So ye, brave men of bravest days,
- Fought on and on with battered shield,
- Up bastion, rampart, till the rays
- Of full morn met ye on the field.
- The great, warm heart of Mother Earth
- Is broken o'er her Javan Isles.
- Lo! ashes strew her ruined hearth
- Along a thousand watery miles.
- I hear her groan, I hear her moan,
- All day above her drowning isles.
- Ye knew not doubt; ye only knew
- To do and dare, and dare and do!
- Ye knew that time, that God's first-born,
- Would turn the darkest night to morn.
- Ye gave your glorious years of youth
- And lived as heroes live — and die.
- Ye loved the truth, ye lived the truth;
- Ye knew that cowards only lie.
- Then heed not now one serpent's hiss,
- Or trait'rous, trading, Judas kiss.
- Let slander wallow in his slime;
- Still leave the truth to God and time.
- Worn victors, few and true, such clouds
- As track God's trailing garment's hem
- Where Shasta keeps shall be your shrouds,
- And ye shall pass the stars in them.
- Your tombs shall be while time endures,
- Such hearts as only truth secures;
- Your everlasting monuments
- Sierra's snow-topt battle tents.