ON THE PEAK OF PICO

Attracted to this airy steep

Above the subject hills,

Ocean, from his surrounding deep

The urn of Pico fills.

Thence gushing streams, unstinted, stray

To glad the mountain's side;

Or, winding through the vallies, gay,

Through fields, and groves, and vineyards glide.

To him the plains their verdure owe

Confessing what your smiles bestow,

Thou Peak of the Azores.

From day to day the unwearied sail

Surveys your towering cone,

And when th’ adjacent prospects fail,

And neighboring isles no more they hail,

You meet the eye alone.

Twice forty miles the exploring eye

Discerns you o'er the waste,

Now, a blue turret in the sky

When not by mists embraced.

Long may you stand, the friendly mark,

To those who sail afar,

A spot that guides the wandering barque,

A second polar star.