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I. I SAW thee, Orizaba, in my youth, | |
| Morn after morn, | |
| When shot and shell bore death, and future ruth | |
| To many a home forlorn. | |
| And, after War’s revolting face | 5 |
| Faded before el Norte blast, | |
| Ofttimes I hied me to thy mountain-base, | |
| And, seated near thy swarthy village, framed | |
| Some verses of a legend,—which I lost, | |
| Drifting from place to place; | 10 |
| But now, from their dark lumber-nook reclaimed, | |
| Upon the world’s wide ocean they are cast. | |
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II. A slave in ancient Mexico | |
| Tended a princess through the woods. | |
| Rain suddenly rushed down in floods, | 15 |
| Till wind and darkness ruled below. | |
| Into some wild-beasts’ cave the slave conveyed | |
| His fainting charge, and soothed her wild affright; | |
| Tore down great boughs to screen the royal maid, | |
| And at her feet sat watchful through the night. | 20 |
| At dawn the tempest lulled, and cleared away: | |
| They issued forth, and saw the first red ray | |
| On Orizaba’s snows, above the cloud-racks gray. | |
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III. They mark the crimsoning sunrise tinge | |
| The clouds above that mountain peak,— | 25 |
| Like strong blood flushing passion’s cheek,— | |
| Then take, below, a yeasty fringe, | |
| Which opens out in many a streak | |
| Of coming light and radiant smiles,— | |
| An ocean-sky, with lovely isles, | 30 |
| Where silent billows flow, and break. | |
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IV. They watch the peak’s clear outline glow! | |
| The clouds with hope’s new birthday yearn! | |
| The palpitating silver snow | |
| Glitters, then seems to blush and burn, | 35 |
| And snatch a robe of gleaming gold, | |
| Its swelling bosom to enfold. | |
| That virgin gold took fire before the rise | |
| Of Orizaba’s sun,—whose wheel-spokes hurled | |
| Beams that made heaven a furnace of all dyes, | 40 |
| Till life’s sustainer burst upon the world! | |
| The slave and princess towards each other pressed,— | |
| Each face was glorified,—each soul confessed! | |
| “I love thee!” cried the slave,—and from that hour was blest. | |
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