Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland: Vols. XIV–XV. 1876–79. | | | | Spain: Guadarrama, the Mountains | | Guadarrama Pass | | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) |
| | (From The Spanish Student, Act III. Scene VI)
VICTORIAN. This is the highest point. Here let us rest. | |
| See, Preciosa, see how all about us | |
| Kneeling, like hooded friars, the misty mountains | |
| Receive the benediction of the sun! | |
| O glorious sight! | 5 |
| PRECIOSA. Most beautiful indeed! | |
| HYPOLITO. Most wonderful! | |
| VICT. And in the vale below, | |
| Where yonder steeples flash like lifted halberds, | |
| San Ildefonso, from its noisy belfries, | 10 |
| Sends up a salutation to the morn, | |
| As if an army smote their brazen shields, | |
| And shouted victory! | |
| PREC. And which way lies Segovia? | |
| VICT. At a great distance yonder. | 15 |
| Dost thou not see it? | |
| PREC. No. I do not see it. | |
| VICT. The merest flaw that dents the horizon’s edge. | |
| There, yonder! | |
| HYP. ’T is a notable old town, | 20 |
| Boasting an ancient Roman aqueduct, | |
| And an Alcázar, builded by the Moors, | |
| Wherein, you may remember, poor Gil Blas | |
| Was fed on Pan del Rey. O, many a time | |
| Out of its grated windows have I looked | 25 |
| Hundreds of feet plumb down to the Eresma, | |
| That, like a serpent through the valley creeping, | |
| Glides at its foot. | | | | |
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