Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Americas: Vol. XXX. 1876–79. | | | | South America: Rio Janeiro, Brazil | | Rio Janeiro | | John Dunmore Lang (1799–1878) |
| | (Excerpt)
ROCKS piled on rocks immense, mountains afar, | |
| Their outline bold, drawn on the lofty sky. | |
| Dom Pedro, thou art safe! Thy bulwarks are | |
| Impregnable, Brazilian liberty! | |
| Faction may ruin thee, but foreign war | 5 |
| Can ne’er assail thy strongholds. Live and die | |
| Free, then, Brazilian! See how bounteous Heaven | |
| For thy defence ramparts of rock hath given! | |
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| Ye pyramids of Egypt, what are ye | |
| To Nature’s pyramids, unnumbered here? | 10 |
| Some stand like watch-towers distant in the sea, | |
| As ’t were to signal give of danger near. | |
| Others on land all riven! Perchance they be | |
| Remnants of giant strife full many a year | |
| Forgot. It may be they were rent asunder | 15 |
| By Titans and by antediluvian thunder. | |
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| Rocks piled on rocks in wild confusion rise, | |
| Mountains uprear their snow-clad peaks afar, | |
| And on each headland bold, strong batteries | |
| Bespeak the infant Empire ripe for war. | 20 |
| Then the broad bay that, like some Scotch loch, lies | |
| Encircled by steep hills, but lovelier far; | |
| Its thousand isles clothed with rich verdure seem | |
| All beauteous as the landscape of a dream. | | | | |
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