Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Americas: Vol. XXX. 1876–79.
Orizaba
By Richard Hengist Horne (1802–1884)Morn after morn,
When shot and shell bore death, and future ruth
To many a home forlorn.
And, after War’s revolting face
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;
But now, from their dark lumber-nook reclaimed,
Upon the world’s wide ocean they are cast.
Tended a princess through the woods.
Rain suddenly rushed down in floods,
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.
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.
The clouds above that mountain peak,—
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,
Where silent billows flow, and break.
The clouds with hope’s new birthday yearn!
The palpitating silver snow
Glitters, then seems to blush and burn,
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,
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.