Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland: Vols. XIV–XV. 1876–79. | | | | Portugal: Tagus (Tejo), the River | | The Tagus | | Belchior Manoel Curvo Semedo (1766–1838) |
| | Translated by W. C. Bryant
IT is a fearful night; a feeble glare | |
| Streams from the sick moon in the o’erclouded sky; | |
| The ridgy billows, with a mighty cry, | |
| Rush on the foamy beaches wild and bare; | |
| No bark the madness of the waves will dare; | 5 |
| The sailors sleep; the winds are loud and high: | |
| Ah, peerless Laura! for whose love I die, | |
| Who gazes on thy smiles while I despair? | |
| As thus, in bitterness of heart, I cried, | |
| I turned, and saw my Laura, kind and bright, | 10 |
| A messenger of gladness, at my side; | |
| To my poor bark she sprang with footstep light; | |
| And as we furrowed Tejo’s heaving tide, | |
| I never saw so beautiful a night. | | | | |
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