Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79. | | | | Western States: Mission Dolores, Cal. | | The Angelus | | Bret Harte (1836–1902) |
| | Heard at the Mission Dolores, 1868
BELLS of the Past, whose long-forgotten music | |
| Still fills the wide expanse, | |
| Tingeing the sober twilight of the Present | |
| With colors of romance: | |
| |
| I hear your call, and see the sun descending | 5 |
| On rock and wave and sand, | |
| As down the coast the Mission voices blending | |
| Girdle the heathen land. | |
| |
| Within the circle of your incantation | |
| No blight nor mildew falls; | 10 |
| Nor fierce unrest, nor lust, nor low ambition | |
| Passes those airy walls. | |
| |
| Borne on the swell of your long waves receding, | |
| I touch the farther Past,— | |
| I see the dying glow of Spanish glory, | 15 |
| The sunset dream and last! | |
| |
| Before me rise the dome-shaped Mission towers, | |
| The white Presidio; | |
| The swart commander in his leathern jerkin, | |
| The priest in stole of snow. | 20 |
| |
| Once more I see Portala’s cross uplifting | |
| Above the setting sun; | |
| And past the headland, northward, slowly drifting | |
| The freighted galleon. | |
| |
| O solemn bells! whose consecrated masses | 25 |
| Recall the faith of old,— | |
| O tinkling bells! that lulled with twilight music | |
| The spiritual fold! | |
| |
| Your voices break and falter in the darkness,— | |
| Break, falter, and are still; | 30 |
| And veiled and mystic, like the Host descending, | |
| The sun sinks from the hill! | | | | |
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