"Prayer of Columbus" is a poem written by the late American poet Walt Whitman. The poem evokes the enterprising spirit of the Christopher Columbus in a God-fearing light, who rediscovered the North American continent in 1492, leading to the colonization of the Americas by the emerging European powers. Although the Viking Leif Ericson has generally been credited as having discovered the North American continent roughly 500 years earlier, Columbus' rediscovery has had a more lasting impact on the colonization trends that continued up until around the onset of World War I. Thus, Whitman's poem serves as a fitting tribute to the proper explorer.
Portions of Whitman's Prayer of Columbus have been enscribed in gilded letters in the marble wall of the Archives/Navy Memorial metro station in Washington, D.C.
Famous quotes containing the words prayer and/or columbus:
“He heard her low accord,
Half prayer and half ditty,
And He felt a subtle quiver,
That was not heavenly love,
Or pity.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The only history is a mere question of one’s struggle inside oneself. But that is the joy of it. One need neither discover Americas nor conquer nations, and yet one has as great a work as Columbus or Alexander, to do.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)