Argonauts
From Asia’s teeming highlands, coasts and bays,
They ploughed the outmost rim of ocean foam,
In pathless deeps envisioning a home
Where suns perennial drop unslanted rays.
They ventured from the people-trodden ways,
And in their light, swift-wingéd barangays,
The seas below, aloft the flaming skies,
They found the ocean haven of Malays.
They set their eyes on points unvisited,
On wave-lapped isles enchantedly remote,
The yawning reefs kept tally of the dead,
Transforming into graves the homes they sought.
From Asia’s naked shores by fancy led,
They spread their sails, and drifted, monsoon-caught.
From Manila: A Collection of Verse (Imp. Paredes, Inc., 1926) by Luis Dato. This poem is in the public domain.
Luis G. Dato
Poet, educator, journalist, and politician Luis G. Dato, one of the first Filipino authors to write and publish in English, was born in Baao, Camarines Sur, Philippines, on July 4, 1906. He was the third of five children born to Eugenio Dato y Espalana and Barbara Guevara y Imperial. His brother, Rodolfo, was also an academic, having served as dean of the University of Nueva Caceres in Naga City, Bicol Region, Philippines, in addition to editing the anthology Filipino Poetry, initially published in 1924.