 | Areytos or songs and ballads of the South |  |
XIII.
Ceased the awful shade,In the prophetic speech. The chief obey'd,
Look'd back, and trembled in his great surprise.
No alps behind him rose!—yet had he striven,
Toiling upward, till the heights grew into heaven,
And the great marches backward had become
Themselves a terror, making manhood dumb,
As did the heights beyond.
His eager eyes
Beheld the happy and sweet vale, that late
He left in bless'd security. What Fate
Had now usurp'd its beauties? Dread the shape,
Coated with serpents, that made fiery rape
Of all its dear possessions! Cottage and grove,
Fair hamlets, orchards ruddy in the sun,
And Youth and Rapture dreaming in the shade,
Forgetting danger in the joys of love—
All by this terrible enemy overrun;
Suddenly crushed and perishing; suddenly made
245
The crash of falling cities, mixed with shrieks
Of women, heard a moment and no more,
Drove the warm blood in whiteness from his cheeks!
| Areytos or songs and ballads of the South | |