El Dorado

Picture the wide and Peaceful Ocean,
Stretched like the living emerald
Between the soft sierras and the sun:
Yonder sweeps the great Unknown,
But here the land doth hurl itself
In panting throes of cliff and crag,
Till far aloft the gnarled and blazing silver
Of its peaks do cut and grip
The sky.
Below twixt sun and sea
Stretch rolling hills and vales
Of beauty such as mortal man
Hath never seen
Since the vast vengeance
Of God's blazing sword
Swung before Paradise.
Gold is as grass;
Great golden temples
Lift their lefty heads in air;
On golden plate
The king and all his court
Do dine;
In gold and jewels
Women walk the gilded streets,
And all the rivers pour
Their golden flood
Down the Golden Sea.