280
While rich Potosi[B] rolls the copious tide
Of wealth, unbounded as the wish of pride;
His pure, unsullied soul with high disdain
For virtue spurns the fascinating bane;
Her seraph form can still his breast allure 285
Tho’ drest in weeds, she triumph’d to be poor—­
Hopeless ambition’s murders to restrain,
And virtue’s wrongs, he sought Iberia’s plain,
Without one mean reserve he nobly brings
A massive treasure, yet unknown to kings:  290
No purple pomp around his dome was spread
No gilded roofs hung glitt’ring o’er his head;
Yet peace with milder radiance deck’d his bower,
And crown’d with dearer joy life’s evening hour;
While virtue whisper’d to his conscious heart 295
The sweet reflexion of its high desert.

Ah, meek Peruvia, still thy murmur’d sighs
Thy stifled groans in fancy’s ear arise;
Sadd’ning she views thy desolated soul,
As slow the circling years of bondage roll, 300
Redeem from tyranny’s oppressive power
With fond affection’s force, one sacred hour;
And consecrate its fleeting, precious space,
The dear remembrance of the past to trace. 
Call from her bed of dust joy’s buried shade; 305
She smiles in mem’ry’s lucid robes array’d,
O’er thy creative scene[C] majestic moves,
And wakes each mild delight thy fancy loves. 
But soon the image of thy wrongs in clouds
The fair and transient ray of pleasure shrouds; 310
Far other visions melt thy mournful eye,
And wake the gushing tear, th’ indignant sigh;
There Ataliba’s sacred, murder’d form,
Sinks in the billow of oppression’s storm;
Wild o’er the scene of death thy glances roll, 315
And pangs tumultuous swell thy troubled soul;
Thy bosom burns, distraction spreads her flames,
And from the tyrant foe her victim claims.

But, lo! where bursting desolation’s night,
A sudden ray of glory cheers my sight; 320
From my fond eye the tear of rapture flows,
My heart with pure delight exulting glows: 
A blooming chief of India’s royal race,
Whose soaring soul, its high descent can trace,
The flag of freedom rears on Chili’s[D] plain, 325
And leads to glorious strife his gen’rous train: 
And see Iberia bleeds! while vict’ry twines
Her fairest blossoms round Peruvia’s shrines;
The gaping wounds of earth disclose no more
The lucid silver, and the glowing ore; 330
A brighter glory gilds the passing hour,
While freedom breaks the rod of lawless power: 
Lo on the Andes’ icy steep she glows,
And prints with rapid step th’ eternal snows;
Or moves majestic o’er the desert plain, 335