Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Americas: Vol. XXX. 1876–79. | | | | Introductory to South America | | South America | | William Lisle Bowles (1762–1850) |
| | (From The Missionary)
WHEN o’er the Atlantic wild, rocked by the blast, | |
| Sad Lusitania’s exiled sovereign passed, | |
| Reft of her pomp, from her paternal throne | |
| Cast forth, and wandering to a clime unknown, | |
| To seek a refuge on that distant shore, | 5 |
| That once her country’s legions dyed with gore;— | |
| Sudden, methought, high towering o’er the flood, | |
| Hesperian world! thy mighty genius stood; | |
| Where spread, from cape to cape, from bay to bay, | |
| Serenely blue, the vast Pacific lay; | 10 |
| And the huge Cordilleras to the skies | |
| With all their burning summits seemed to rise. | |
| Then the stern spirit spoke, and to his voice | |
| The waves and woods replied: Mountains, rejoice! | |
| Thou solitary sea, whose billows sweep | 15 |
| The margin of my forests, dark and deep, | |
| Rejoice! the hour is come: the mortal blow, | |
| That smote the golden shrines of Mexico, | |
| In Europe is avenged; and thou, proud Spain, | |
| Now hostile hosts insult thy own domain; | 20 |
| Now Fate, vindictive, rolls, with refluent flood, | |
| Back on thy shores the tide of human blood, | |
| Think of my murdered millions! of the cries | |
| That once I heard from all my kingdoms rise; | |
| Of Famine’s feeble plaint, of Slavery’s tear;— | 25 |
| Think, too, if Valor, Freedom, Fame, be dear, | |
| How my Antarctic sons, undaunted, stood, | |
| Exacting groan for groan, and blood for blood; | |
| And shouted, (may the sounds be hailed by thee!) | |
| Tyrants, the virtuous and the brave are free! | 30 | | | |
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