Northward

Under the high unclouded sun

That makes the ship and shadow one,

     I sail away as from the fort

Booms sullenly the noonday gun.

The odorous airs blow thin and fine,

The sparkling waves like emeralds shine,

     The lustre of the coral reefs

Gleams whitely through the tepid brine.

And glitters o'er the liquid miles

The jewelled ring of verdant isles,

     Where generous Nature holds her court

Of ripened bloom and sunny smiles.

Encinctured by the faithful seas

Inviolate gardens load the breeze,

     Where flaunt like giant-warders' plumes

The pennants of the cocoa-trees.

Enthroned in light and bathed in balm,

In lonely majesty the Palm

     Blesses the isles with waving hands, –

High-Priest of the eternal Calm.

Yet Northward with an equal mind

I steer my course, and leave behind

     The rapture of the Southern skies, –

The wooing of the Southern wind.

For here o'er Nature's wanton bloom

Falls far and near the shade of gloom,

     Cast from the hovering vulture-wings

Of one dark thought of woe and doom.

I know that in the snow-white pines

The brave Norse fire of freedom shines,

     And fain for this I leave the land

Where endless summer pranks the vines.

O strong, free North, so wise and brave!

O South, too lovely for a slave!

     Why read ye not the changeless truth, –

The free can conquer but to save?

May God upon these shining sands

Send Love and Victory clasping hands,

     And Freedom's banners wave in peace

Forever o'er the rescued lands !

And here, in that triumphant hour,

Shall yielding Beauty wed with Power;

     And blushing earth and smiling sea

In dalliance deck the bridal bower.

— John Hay, Key West, Wednesday, March 9, 1864.

SOURCES: John Hay, The Complete Poetical Works of John Hay, p. 140-2Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 177-8. Michael Burlingame & John R. Turner Ettlinger, Editors, Inside Lincoln's White House: The Complete Civil War Diary of John Hay, p. 178.