LAMENT OF LA VEGA.1

"O patria amada! á ti suspira y llora

Está en su carcel alma peregrina,

Llevada errando, en otro instante."

I.

I AM a captive on a hostile shore,

Caged, like the falcon from his native skies,
And doomed my agonizing grief to pour
In futile lamentations, tears, and sighs,
And feed the gaze of fools whom I despise.
Daily they taunt my heart with bitter sneers-
They prate of liberty-deeds great and wise,

And fill the air with patriotic cheers,

While human shackles clank around their listless ears.

II.

Hark! hear ye not, mid those triumphal cries,

The clanking of the Ethiopian's chains?

His smothered curses from the rice-fields rise ?

The loud indignant beating of his veins,

Stirred by the lava hell that in him reigns? Hear'st him not writhe against the dark decree That gyves the soul-for it brute-rank maintains ? The impetuous rushings of his heart when he Watches the eagle soar into the heavens all free?

III.

My soul, appalled, shrinks from hypocrisy, And whatsoever bears deception's nameUnder thy banner-heaven-born Liberty! The fiends of war, inflated with acclaim, Revel in crime and virtue put to shameThey slaughter babes and wives without a cause, And holding up their reeking blades, exclaim"A victory!" Demolish homes, rights, laws, And o'er the wreck send up to Heaven their proud hurrahıs.

IV.

I am a captive while my Country bleeds;
For retribution loudly cries to Heaven,
And for the presence of her warriors pleads
Till from her far the ruthless foe is driven-

Oh God! oh GOD! hast thou my country given
To direful fate? Must I lie cooped up here;

While she by desecrating hands is riven;

The sobs of Age, and Beauty's shrieks of fear, Like funeral knells afar are tolling in my ear?

V.

And thou, ethereal One! my spirit's bride,
—My star, my sun, my never-fading beam

That lit my youthful feet mid ways untried;
Within me woke each high ambitious scheme-
And here dost hover o'er me in my dream,
Pressing thy lips to mine until I feel

Our quick hearts ebbing into one soft stream

Of holy love-ah! who will guard thy weal,

And from thy breast avert the dark marauder's steel?

VI.

Oh, my distracted Country! child of pain
And anarchy-thee shall I see no more
Till thou art struggling in the tyrant's chain,
Oppressed by insult and by sorrow sore,
And steeping in thy children's sacred gore?

Must thy dim star of glory set for aye?
Must thou become the poet's MECCA? Lore

For antiquaries? Temple of decay?

Wilt thou survive no more, my beautiful MONTEREY ?

Spirit of CORTEZ

VII.

MONTEZUMA ! rise!

Let not the foe your cherished land enslave,

Let her not fall a bloody sacrifice,

And thou, eternal CID! who from the grave
Didst wake to lead to victory the brave!
Heroes who fell in RONCESVALLES' vale!

And ye who fought by DARRO'S golden wave,
From the red VEGA drove the Moslem pale,
Hear, in the spirit-land, my country's doleful wail!

THE PRISONER OF PEROTE.'

IN the prison of Perote

Silently the warrior sate,

With his eye bent sadly downward,
Like one stricken sore by Fate;

Broken visions of his glory

Quick before his spirit passed,

Like clouds athwart the sunny heaven,

Hurtled by the blast.

The sullen booming of the cannon,

And the clash of blade and spear

Death, death unto the tyrant!

Still were ringing in his ear.

Much he sorrowed for the people,

For whose weal he fain would die-

On the tablets of the future,

Sadly fell his eye.