The Lusiad; Or, The Discovery of India, an Epic Poem

ARMS and the Heroes, who from Lisbon’s shore, Thro’ seas where sail was never spread before, Beyond where Ceylon lifts her spicy breast, And waves her woods above the wat’ry waste, With prowess more than human forc’d their way To the fair kingdoms of the rising day: What wars they wag’d, what seas, what dangers pass’d, What glorious empire crown’d their toils at last, Vent’rous I sing, on soaring pinions borne, And all my country’s wars the song adorn; What kings, what heroes of my native land Thunder’d on Asia’s and on Afric’s strand: Illustrious shades, who levell’d in the dust The idol-temples and the shrines of lust: And where, erewhile, foul demons were rever’d, To Holy Faith unnumber’d altars rear’d: Illustrious names, with deathless laurels crown’d, While time rolls on in every clime renown’d!

Let Fame with wonder name the Greek no more, What lands he saw, what toils at sea he bore; Nor more the Trojan’s wand’ring voyage boast, What storms he brav’d on many a perilous coast: No more let Rome exult in Trajan’s name, Nor Eastern conquests Ammon’s pride proclaim; A nobler hero’s deeds demand my lays Than e’er adorn’d the song of ancient days, Illustrious Gama, whom the waves obey’d, And whose dread sword the fate of empire sway’d.