More bleak to view the hills at
length recede,
And, less luxuriant, smoother vales
extend:
Immense horizon-bounded plains succeed!
Far as the eye discerns, withouten
end,
Spain’s realms appear, whereon
her shepherds tend
Flocks, whose rich fleece right
well the trader knows —
Now must the pastor’s arm
his lambs defend:
For Spain is compassed by unyielding
foes,
And all must shield their all, or share Subjection’s
woes.
XXXII.
Where Lusitania and her Sister meet,
Deem ye what bounds the rival realms
divide?
Or e’er the jealous queens
of nations greet,
Doth Tayo interpose his mighty tide?
Or dark sierras rise in craggy pride?
Or fence of art, like China’s
vasty wall? —
Ne barrier wall, ne river deep and
wide,
Ne horrid crags, nor mountains dark
and tall
Rise like the rocks that part Hispania’s land
from Gaul
XXXIII.
But these between a silver streamlet
glides,
And scarce a name distinguisheth
the brook,
Though rival kingdoms press its
verdant sides.
Here leans the idle shepherd on
his crook,
And vacant on the rippling waves
doth look,
That peaceful still ’twixt
bitterest foemen flow:
For proud each peasant as the noblest
duke:
Well doth the Spanish hind the difference
know
’Twixt him and Lusian slave, the lowest of the
low.
XXXIV.
But ere the mingling bounds have
far been passed,
Dark Guadiana rolls his power along
In sullen billows, murmuring and
vast,
So noted ancient roundelays among.
Whilome upon his banks did legions
throng
Of Moor and Knight, in mailed splendour
drest;
Here ceased the swift their race,
here sunk the strong;
The Paynim turban and the Christian
crest
Mixed on the bleeding stream, by floating hosts oppressed.
XXXV.
Oh, lovely Spain! renowned, romantic
land!
Where is that standard which Pelagio
bore,
When Cava’s traitor-sire first
called the band
That dyed thy mountain-streams with
Gothic gore?
Where are those bloody banners which
of yore
Waved o’er thy sons, victorious
to the gale,
And drove at last the spoilers to
their shore?
Red gleamed the cross, and waned
the crescent pale,
While Afric’s echoes thrilled with Moorish matrons’
wail.
XXXVI.
Teems not each ditty with the glorious
tale?
Ah! such, alas, the hero’s
amplest fate!
When granite moulders and when records
fail,
A peasant’s plaint prolongs
his dubious date.
Pride! bend thine eye from heaven
to thine estate,
See how the mighty shrink into a
song!
Can volume, pillar, pile, preserve
thee great?
Or must thou trust Tradition’s
simple tongue,
When Flattery sleeps with thee, and History does thee
wrong?