| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | The Native Land | | By Francisco de Aldana (1537?–1578) |
| | Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
CLEAR fount of light! my native land on high | |
| Bright with a glory that shall never fade! | |
| Mansion of truth! without a veil or shade, | |
| Thy holy quiet meets the spirit’s eye. | |
| There dwells the soul in its ethereal essence, | 5 |
| Gasping no longer for life’s feeble breath; | |
| But sentinelled in heaven, its glorious presence | |
| With pitying eye beholds, yet fears not, death. | |
| Belovëd country! banished from thy shore, | |
| A stranger in this prison-house of clay, | 10 |
| The exiled spirit weeps and sighs for thee! | |
| Heavenward the bright perfections I adore | |
| Direct, and the sure promise cheers the way, | |
| That, whither love aspires, there shall my dwelling be. | | | | |
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