Joaquin Miller

A dull eyed rattlesnake that lay All loathsome, yellow-skinned, and slept, Coil'd tight as pine-knot, in the sun

All silent.... So, he lies in state.... Our redwoods drip and drip with rain.... Against our rock-locked Golden Gate

Behind him lay the gray Azores, Behind the Gates of Hercules; Before him not the ghost of shores,

What great yoked brutes with briskets low, With wrinkled necks like buffalo, With round, brown, liquid, pleading eyes,

His footprints have failed us, Where berries are red, And madro'os are rankest,

His broad brimmed hat push'd back with careless air, The proud vaquero sits his steed as free As winds that toss his black, abundant hair.

Where the cocoa and cactus are neighbors, Where the fig and the fir tree are one; Where the brave corn is lifting bent sabres

Yes! I am a dreamer. While you seek gold in the earth, why, I See gold in the steeps of the starry sky;

Rugged! Rugged as Parnassus! Rude, as all roads I have trod Yet are steeps and stone-strewn passes

You will come, my bird, Bonita? Come! For I by steep and stone Have built such nest for you, Juanita,

Give honor and love for evermore To this great man gone to rest; Peace on the dim Plutonian shore,

The city sits amid her palms; The perfume of her twilight breath Is something as the sacred balms

Santa Ana came storming, as a storm might come; There was rumble of cannon; there was rattle of blade; There was cavalry, infantry, bugle and drum

Serene and satisfied! Supreme! As lone As God, they loom like God's archangels churl'd; They look as cold as kings upon a throne;

The sun is dying; space and room. Serenity, vast sense of rest, Lie bosomed in the orange west

Come, listen O love, to the voice of the dove, Come, hearken and hear him say, "There are many Tomorrows, my love, my love,

Come listen, O Love, to the voice of the dove, Come, hearken and hear him say, There are many To-morrows, my Love, my Love,

Who tamed your lawless Tartar blood? What David bearded in her den The Russian bear in ages when

Sound! sound! sound! O colossal walls and crown'd In one eternal thunder!