Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Americas: Vol. XXX. 1876–79. | | | | Introductory to Mexico | | Mexico | | Joel Barlow (1754–1812) |
| | (From The Columbiad)
WHERE Mexic hills the breezy gulf defend, | |
| Spontaneous groves with richer burdens bend: | |
| Anana’s stalk its shaggy honors yields; | |
| Acassia’s flowers perfume a thousand fields; | |
| Their clustered dates the mast-like palms unfold; | 5 |
| The spreading orange waves a load of gold; | |
| Connubial vines o’ertop the larch they climb; | |
| The long-lived olive mocks the moth of time; | |
| Pomona’s pride, that old Grenada claims, | |
| Here smiles and reddens in diviner flames; | 10 |
| Pimento, citron, scent the sky serene; | |
| White, woolly clusters fringe the cotton’s green; | |
| The sturdy fig, the frail deciduous cane, | |
| And foodful cocoa fan the sultry plain. | |
| Here, in one view, the same glad branches bring | 15 |
| The fruits of autumn and the flowers of spring; | |
| No wintry blasts the unchanging year deform, | |
| Nor beasts unsheltered fear the pinching storm; | |
| But vernal breezes o’er the blossoms rove, | |
| And breathe the ripened juices through the grove. | 20 | | | |
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