Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland: Vols. XIV–XV. 1876–79.

Spain: Saragossa (Zaragoza; Sansueña)

Zaragoza

By Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)

(From The Vision of Don Roderick)

THEN Zaragoza,—blighted be the tongue

That names thy name without the honor due!

For never hath the harp of minstrel rung,

Of faith so felly proved, so firmly true!

Mine, sap, and bomb thy shattered ruins knew,

Each art of war’s extremity had room,

Twice from thy half-sacked streets the foe withdrew,

And when at length stern Fate decreed thy doom,

They won not Zaragoza, but her children’s bloody tomb.

Yet raise thy head, sad city! Though in chains,

Enthralled thou canst not be! Arise and claim

Reverence from every heart where freedom reigns,

For what thou worshippest!—thy sainted dame,

She of the column, honored be her name,

By all, whate’er their creed, who honor love!

And like the sacred relics of the flame,

That gave some martyr to the blessed above,

To every loyal heart may thy sad embers prove!