Book VI

Now like the soul of Ophir on the seaGlittered the Golden Hynde, and all her heartTurned home to England. As a child that findsA ruby ring upon the highway, straightHomeward desires to run with it, so sheYearned for her home and country. Yet the worldWas all in arms behind her. Fleet on fleetAwaited her return. Along the coastThe very churches melted down their chimesAnd cast them into cannon. To the SouthA thousand cannon watched Magellan's straits,And fleets were scouring all the sea like hounds,With orders that where'er they came on Drake,Although he were the Dragon of their dreams,They should out-blast his thunders and convey,Dead or alive, his body back to Spain.

And Drake laughed out and said, "My trusty ladsOf Devon, you have made the wide world ringWith England's name; you have swept one half the seasFrom sky to sky; and in our oaken holdYou have packed the gorgeous Indies. We shall sailBut slowly with such wealth. If we return,We are one against ten thousand! We will seekThe fabled Northern passage, take our goldSafe home; then out to sea again and tryOur guns against their guns."

And as they sailedNorthward, they swooped on warm blue GuatulcoFor food and water. Nigh the dreaming portThe grand alcaldes in high conclave sat,Blazing with gold and scarlet, as they triedA batch of negro slaves upon the chargeOf idleness in Spanish mines; dumb slaves,With bare scarred backs and labour-broken knees,And sorrowful eyes like those of wearied kineSpent from the ploughing. Even as the judgeRose to condemn them to the knotted lashThe British boat's crew, quiet and compact,Entered the court. The grim judicial glareGrew wider with amazement, and the judgeStaggered against his gilded throne."I thankAlmighty God," cried Drake, "who hath given me this--That I who once, in ignorance, procuredSlaves for the golden bawdy-house of Spain,May now, in England's name, help to requiteThat wrong. For now I say in England's name,Where'er her standard flies, the slave shall standUpright, the shackles fall from off his limbs.Unyoke the prisoners: tell them they are menOnce more, not beasts of burden. Set them free;But take these gold and scarlet popinjaysAboard my Golden Hynde; and let them writeAn order that their town shall now provideMy boats with food and water."This being done,The slaves being placed in safety on the prize,The Golden Hynde revictualled and the casksReplenished with fresh water, Drake set freeThe judges and swept Northward once again;And, off the coast of Nicaragua, foundA sudden treasure better than all gold;For on the track of the China trade they caughtA ship whereon two China pilots sailed,And in their cabin lay the secret charts,Red hieroglyphs of Empire, unknown chartsOf silken sea-roads down the golden WestWhere all roads meet and East and West are one.And, with that mystery stirring in their heartsLike a strange cry from home, Northward they sweptAnd Northward, till the soft luxurious coastsHardened, the winds grew bleak, the great green wavesLoomed high like mountains round them, and the sprayFroze on their spars and yards. Fresh from the warmthOf tropic seas the men could hardly brookThat cold; and when the floating hills of iceLike huge green shadows crowned with ghostly snowWent past them with strange whispers in the gloom,Or took mysterious colours in the dawn,Their hearts misgave them, and they found no way;But all was iron shore and icy sea.And one by one the crew fell sick to deathIn that fierce winter, and the land still ranWestward and showed no passage. Tossed with storms,Onward they plunged, or furrowed gentler tidesOf ice-lit emerald that made the prowA faery beak of some enchanted shipFlinging wild rainbows round her as she droveThro' seas unsailed by mortal mariners,Past isles unhailed of any human voice,Where sound and silence mingled in one songOf utter solitude. Ever as they wentThe flag of England blazoned the broad breeze,Northward, where never ship had sailed before,Northward, till lost in helpless wonderment,Dazed as a soul awakening from the dreamOf death to some wild dawn in Paradise(Yet burnt with cold as they whose very tearsFreeze on their faces where Cocytus wails)All world-worn, bruised, wing-broken, wracked, and wrenched,Blackened with lightning, scarred as with evil deeds,But all embalmed in beauty by that sunWhich never sets, bosomed in peace at lastThe Golden Hynde rocked on a glittering calm.Seas that no ship had ever sailed, from skyTo glistening sky, swept round them. Glory and gleam,Glamour and lucid rapture and diamond airEmbraced her broken spars, begrimed with goldHer gloomy hull, rocking upon a sphereNew made, it seemed, mysterious with the firstMystery of the world, where holy skyAnd sacred sea shone like the primal LightOf God, a-stir with whispering sea-bird's wingsAnd glorious with clouds. Only, all day,All night, the rhythmic utterance of His willIn the deep sigh of seas that washed His throne,Rose and relapsed across Eternity,Timed to the pulse of æons. All their worldSeemed strange as unto us the great new heavensAnd glittering shores, if on some aery barkTo Saturn's coasts we came and traced no moreThe tiny gleam of our familiar earthFar off, but heard tremendous oceans rollRound unimagined continents, and sawTerrible mountains unto which our AlpsWere less than mole-hills, and such gaunt ravinesCleaving them and such cataracts roaring downAs burst the gates of our earth-moulded senses,Pour the eternal glory on our souls,And, while ten thousand chariots bring the dawn,Hurl us poor midgets trembling to our knees.Glory and glamour and rapture of lucid air,Ice cold, with subtle colours of the skyEmbraced her broken spars, belted her hulkWith brilliance, while she dipped her jacinth beakIn waves of mounded splendour, and sometimesA great ice-mountain flashed and floated byThroned on the waters, pinnacled and crownedWith all the smouldering jewels in the world;Or in the darkness, glimmering berg on berg,All emerald to the moon, went by like ghostsWhispering to the South.There, as they lay,Waiting a wind to fill the stiffened sails,Their hearts remembered that in England nowThe Spring was nigh, and in that lonely seaThe skilled musicians filled their eyes with home.