Would God that we, their children, were as they!
Great-souled, brave-hearted, and of dauntless will;
Ready to dare, responsive to the still,
Compelling voice that called them night and day
From this far West where sleeping Greatness lay
Biding her time. Would God we knew the thrill
That exquisitely tormented them, until
They stood up strong and resolute to obey.
God, make us like them, worthy of them; shake
Our souls with great desires; our dull eyes set
On some high star whose splendid light will wake
Us from our dreams, and guide us from this fen
Of selfish ease won by our fathers’ sweat.
Oh, lift us up—the West has need of Men!
“The Pioneers of the West” as it appears in Higginson’s The Voice of April-Land (1903).