...America as the place of the next Golden Age. The last three stanzas of Berkeley's "Verses on America" go: There shall be sung another Golden Age, The Rise of...inspiring epic Rage, The wisest Heads and Noblest hearts. Not such as Europe breeds in her decay, Such as she bred when fresh and young. When Heavenly Flame...

...did animate her Clay, By future Poets shall be sung. Westward the Course of Empire takes its Way,The four first Acts already past, A fifth shall close the Drama with the Day,Time's noblest Offspring is the last. 405 NOTE 1. From A Miscellany, containing Several Tracts...

...stanza of the poem, namely, that which has received special interest from commentators: Westward the Course of Empire takes its Way, The four first Acts...past. A fifth shall close the Drama with the Day, The world's great Effort is the last. (Berkeley 1948-57: 7:370 [America]) In trying to interpret the...

...almost messianic vision of this new land. The poem concluded with the following stanza: Westward the Course of Empire takes its Way, The four first Acts...past. A fifth shall close the Drama with the Day, The world s great Effort is the last. Because of a navigation error, Berkeley's ship landed in Newport,...

...title "Verses on the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America" (1752). "There," he claims, "shall be sung another golden Age, / The rise of Empire and of Arts" (13-14).'10 Then — in what only later became the most famous lines of the poem — Berkeley predicts...

...every glorious theme, In distant lands now waits a better time, Producing subjects worthy fame ... There shall be sung another golden age, The rise of...inspiring epic rage, The wisest heads and noblest hearts. 1 1 This is the first citation offered for the term by the Oxford English Dictionary. 12 See Thomas...