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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland: Vols. XIV–XV. 1876–79.

Spain: Oropesa

Oropesa

By Robert Southey (1774–1843)

(From Recollections of a Day’s Journey in Spain)

THE MISTS of morn

(I well remember) hovered o’er the heath,

When with the earliest dawn of day we left

The solitary Venta. Soon the sun

Rose in his glory: scattered by the breeze

The thin mists rolled away, and now emerged

We saw where Oropesa’s castled hill

Towered in the dim light dark; and now we past

Torralva’s quiet huts, and on our way

Paused frequent, and looked back, and gazed around,

Then journeyed on, and paused, and gazed again.

It was a goodly scene. The stately pile

Of Oropesa now with all its towers

Shone in the sunbeam; half-way up the hill,

Embowered in olives, like the abode of Peace,

Lay Lagartina; and the cool fresh gale

Bending the young corn on the gradual slope

Played o’er its varying verdure. I beheld

A convent near, and my heart thought that they

Who did inhabit there were holy men,

For, as they looked around them, all they saw

Was very good.