Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland: Vols. XIV–XV. 1876–79.
Carolina Coronado
By Martha Perry Lowe (18291902)T
Upon a gifted maid, who rose
Within that old, beleaguered town,
And startled Spain from her repose.
Of poet youth beneath her dark
And shining locks. She struck her lyre;
And, lo! the land of Spain did hark.
With love to all the solitudes,
And hid beside the wild-bird’s nest
Her verses in the rocks and woods.
Young meadow rose, and lingered near
The turtle-dove, who did repeat
“Love, love,” forever in her ear.
Weeping her tears melodiously
At evening with the nightingale,
Or with the palm communing high.
The prunéd walks of classic time,
But ran abroad, and revelled in
New laws that rose from out her rhyme.
The sordid flats of Life’s dull sea;
And, last, she dared to speak unto
Her nation that word,—Liberty!
The slavish priesthood tremble at
The burning words of truth she spake,
And poets at her footstool sat.
Upon her in the royal dome;
But most she loves the coronet
Of wife and mother in her home!