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Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  To Luis de Ulloa

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

Spain: Toro

To Luis de Ulloa

By Luis de Góngora (1561–1627)

Translated by Edward Churton

HIGH on the front of Spain’s embattled brow,

With generous splendor, not vain glory, crowned,

Fairest of seats which Douro’s waters bound,

Stands Toro; and fair Toro’s boast art thou:

Why roam thy steps in other regions now,

Love’s pilgrim? Vain is flight from arrow’s wound,

Barbed with hard steel from mountain caves profound,

And tempered in the fountain’s icy flow.

As vainly stricken deer his hurt might hide,

Pierced by the envenomed shaft. A braver part

Be thine: at Beauty’s feet lay down thy pride.

Flight from fair nymph may suit the fearful hart:

The gentle spirit hastes, where Love will guide,

To kiss the hand that points the unerring dart.