 | Verses of varied life |  |
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CINTRA in 1879.
Cintra, our Byron gave thy name to fameBy his description grand, and sweet, and true;
But though thy ‘mountain's ever beauteous brow’
And many other objects are unchanged,
Yet altered are full many of the scenes
On which the poet looked, and mused and sang.
No ‘frugal monks their little relics show’
To strangers at ‘Our Lady's house of woe.’
One sees their tiny cells, their cork-wood walls,
Honorius's cave, and that is all.
The former home of ‘England's wealthiest son’
No longer has its ‘portals gaping wide,’
Its ‘halls deserted,’ or great ‘giant weeds’
Within its garden ground:—but it is fair,
Fair as the lordly traveller declared
It was of yore. While ‘Marialva's dome’
Is changed in that 'tis now historical,
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Its interest was eclipsed by other themes
Of ever-varying War:—the deed performed
Within its gates too recent not to be
Left unto record of the daily gossip,
And comments of the press which rarely live.
All now is different:—a classic scene
Thou standest, Cintra, clothed with more of fame
(To English minds at least) from Byron's words
Than from thy matchless beauty, could that be.
And mayhap, in the years to come, some poet
Treading the self-same scenes will tell how one,
A writer of poor verses, tried to tell
What changes there had been since Byron wrote;
And he, in turn, with glowing eloquence
Will paint with poet's art the tide of Change
On Cintra since these lines were given forth.
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