The dreadful Pillars proved as tame
As other rocks of lesser fame.

Hence, when before them stretched the sea,
Majestic, limitless and clear,
A rapturous sense of being free
Dispelled all vestiges of fear
The longed-for ocean to explore
From pole to pole, from shore to shore.

Thus all men learn the God they dread
Is kinder than they had supposed,
And that, not God, but Man hath said,--
"The door to freedom must be closed!"
Once past that door, with broadened view,
They find Him better than they knew.

Meanwhile, along the sunlit strait
My ship glides toward the saffron west,
Beyond the old Phenician gate
To ocean's gently heaving breast,
Whence, on the ever-freshening breeze,
There greet my spirit words like these;--

Sail bravely on! the morning light
Shall find thee far beyond the land;
Gibraltar's battlemented height
And Afric's tawny hills of sand
Shall soon completely sink from view
Beneath the ocean's belt of blue.