Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE INDIAN'S WELCOME TO THE PILGRIM FATHERS, by LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Above them spread a strange sky Last Line: Say, who shall welcome thee? Subject(s): Americans; Native Americans; Pilgrim Fathers; United States; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America; America | ||||||||
ABOVE them spread a stranger sky; Around, the sterile plain; The rock-bound coast rose frowning nigh; Beyond, -- the wrathful main: Chill remnants of the wintry snow Still choked the encumbered soil, Yet forth those Pilgrim Fathers go To mark their future toil. 'Mid yonder vale their corn must rise In summer's ripening pride, And there the church-spire woo the skies Its sister-school beside. Perchance mid England's velvet green Some tender thought reposed, Though nought upon their stoic mien Such soft regret disclosed. When sudden from the forest wide A red-browed chieftain came, With towering form, and haughty stride, And eye like kindling flame: No wrath he breathed, no conflict sought, To no dark ambush drew, But simply to the Old World brought The welcome of the New. That welcome was a blast and ban Upon thy race unborn; Was there no seer, -- thou fated Man! -- Thy lavish zeal to warn? Thou in thy fearless faith didst hail A weak, invading band, But who shall heed thy children's wail Swept from their native land? Thou gav'st the riches of thy streams, The lordship o'er thy waves, The region of thine infant dreams And of thy father's graves, -- But who to yon proud mansions, piled With wealth of earth and sea, Poor outcast from thy forest wild, Say, who shall welcome thee? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...JULY FOURTH BY THE OCEAN by ROBINSON JEFFERS SHINE, PERISHING REPUBLIC by ROBINSON JEFFERS SHINE, PERISHING REPUBLIC by ROBINSON JEFFERS WATCH THE LIGHTS FADE by ROBINSON JEFFERS AFTER TENNYSON by AMBROSE BIERCE MEETING YOU AT THE PIERS by KENNETH KOCH INVOCATION TO THE SOCIAL MUSE by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH COLUMBUS [JANUARY, 1487] by LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY |
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