 | Areytos or songs and ballads of the South |  |
II.
The chosen spirit, on its forward march,Armed with just courage that makes great its cause,
Stands mightier than the force of common laws,
And grows, beneath the heaven's broad favoring arch,
Into an eminent stature, like a God,
Whose distant-piercing vision, all abroad
Sends fiery brightness, which informs the nations
With a life-giving virtue, like the sun's!
Thenceforth, rise other spirits to their stations,
And a new blood through all the people runs.
Thus animate for conquest, o'er the earth
They spread; and conquest by a generous race,
Endowed with high commission at its birth,
Is blessing, and brings messages of grace
And great encouragement to the struggling low!
They look up as they see the brightness glow,
As Shepherds at the Day-Star, and arise
With welcome; and their progress thence, though slow,
Is certain, and most worthy of the skies!
| Areytos or songs and ballads of the South | |