First Look

We've been at sea for too long

I'm past illness now

But oh, how I yearn for land

I don't care if it's the New World

I'd even return to Scrooby or Plymouth

Say what my parents will about

America

Our hope

Where our freedom reigns

In the silent, untouched

Paradise

Oh, my brother calls from the rail

They have seen gulls

But what of that?

We have been at sea for

Sixty or so days

I've lost count

I'm tired and miserable

What have we to look forward to?

Hard work

To build a life out of a wilderness

I look forward

Over the grey Atlantic

And I see a shape

Deep blue

Rising out of the endless waves

Now putting a barrier, and ending

On the long months of waiting

I forget my anxieties

Crying, "Land, land!"

Hope is forward

There is America

Our home

And we will work

And build a settlement

And build a nation

A nation of freedom