Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Americas: Vol. XXX. 1876–79. | | | | Introductory to Mexico | | Mexico | | Nicholas Michell (1807–1880) |
| | (From Ruins of Many Lands)
FAIR Mexico, that, trembling in her chains, | |
| Saw ruthless strangers waste her peaceful plains, | |
| Where are the stately domes she reared of old, | |
| Her terraced shrines that blazed with gems and gold? | |
| Where her white-feathered chiefs that lined each steep, | 5 |
| Like foamy waves which crest the breezy deep? | |
| Alas! her tale is traced in tears and flame; | |
| Let History blush to write a Cortes’ name; | |
| Lo! where the fires ascend from yonder vale! | |
| Ye hear the stake-bound victims’ dying wail. | 10 |
| Doth not a groan each turf-clad barrow yield, | |
| From those who fell on red Otumba’s field? | |
| While on each murmuring wind that wanders by | |
| Floats royal Montezuma’s fruitless sigh. * * * * * | | | | |
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