July Fourth By The Ocean

The continent's a tamed ox, with all its mountains,

Powerful and servile; here is for plowland, here is     for park and playground, this

Cataract for power; it lies behind us at

All docile between this ocean and the other.

If     flood troubles the lowlands, or

Cracks walls, it is only a slave's blunder or the

Shudder of a new made slave.

Therefore we happy     masters about the

Light bonfires on the shore and celebrate our power.

The bay's necklaced with fire, the bombs make crystal     fountains in the air, the

Shower swan's-neck over the night water….

I

The stars drew apart a little as if from troublesome     children, coldly compassionate;

But the ocean neither seemed astonished nor in awe:

If this had been the little sea that Xerxes whipped,     how it would have feared us.