Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland: Vols. XIV–XV. 1876–79. | | | | Introductory to Spain | | Spain | | Lord Byron (1788–1824) |
| | (From Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage)
O LOVELY Spain! renowned, romantic land! | |
| Where is that standard which Pelagio bore, | |
| When Cava’s traitor-sire first called the band | |
| That dyed thy mountain streams with Gothic gore? | |
| Where are those bloody banners which of yore | 5 |
| Waved o’er thy sons, victorious to the gale, | |
| And drove at last the spoilers to their shore? | |
| Red gleamed the cross, and waned the crescent pale, | |
| While Afric’s echoes thrilled with Moorish matrons’ wail. | |
| |
| Teems not each ditty with the glorious tale? | 10 |
| Ah! such, alas, the hero’s amplest fate! | |
| When granite moulders and when records fail, | |
| A peasant’s plaint prolongs his dubious date. | |
| Pride! bend thine eye from heaven to thine estate, | |
| See how the mighty shrink into a song! | 15 |
| Can volume, pillar, pile, preserve thee great? | |
| Or must thou trust Tradition’s simple tongue, | |
| When Flattery sleeps with thee, and History does thee wrong? | | | | |
|
|
