Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland: Vols. XIV–XV. 1876–79.
Columbus before the University of Salamanca
By Lydia Huntley Sigourney (1791–1865)S
In learning’s pomp that day,
For there a robed and stately crowd
Pressed on in long array.
A mariner with simple chart
Confronts that conclave high,
While strong ambition stirs his heart,
And burning thoughts of wonder part
From lip and sparkling eye.
In whispered tones they speak,
And lines upon their tablets trace,
Which flush each ashen cheek;
The Inquisition’s mystic doom
Sits on their brows severe,
And bursting forth in visioned gloom,
Sad heresy from burning tomb
Groans on the startled ear.
Thy splendid dream shall crown,
Yon western hemisphere sublime,
Where unshorn forests frown,
The awful Andes’ cloud-rapt brow,
The Indian hunter’s bow,
Bold streams untamed by helm or prow,
And rocks of gold and diamonds there
To thankless Spain shalt show.
In Fate’s unfolding scroll,
Dark woes and ingrate wrongs I read,
That rack the noble soul.
On! On! Creation’s secrets probe,
Then drink thy cup of scorn,
And wrapped in fallen Cæsar’s robe,
Sleep like that master of the globe,
All glorious, yet forlorn.