The moon is up. the stars are bright, The wind is fresh and free !
We"re out to seek for gold to-night Across the silver sea !
The world was growing grey and old; Break out the sails again !
We"re out to seek a Realm of Gold Beyond the Spanish Main.
We"re sick of all the cringing knees, The courtly smiles and lies !
God, let Thy singing Channel breeze Lighten our hearts and eyes !
Let love no more be bought and sold For earthly loss or gain;We"re out to seek an Age of Gold Beyond the Spanish Main.
Beyond the light of far Cathay, Beyond all mortal dreams,Beyond the reach of night and day Our El Dorado gleams,Revealing-as the skies unfold- A star without a stain,The glory of the Gates of Gold Beyond the Spanish Main.
Alfred Noyes.
Author.-Alfred Noyes (born 1880), a fluent English poet of wide appeal, author of The Loom of Years, The Flower of Old Japan, Drake, and other verse, largely heroic, besides plays, short stories, and essays.
General Notes.-Note that the metre is wholly iambic. The Spanish Main was the country bordering on the Caribbean Sea. The " Realm of Gold" is a reference to the mythical El Dorado : the "Age of Gold" is a time of universal happiness, sometimes pictured in the remote past, perhaps in the remote future; Cathay, an old name for China. The whole purpose of the poem is to picture the quest of the ideal and to reveal the light that never was on sea or land.