Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
Poems of Tragedy: VI. SpainBernardo Del Carpio
Felicia Dorothea Hemans (17931835)T
And sued the haughty king to free his long-imprisoned sire;
“I bring thee here my fortress keys, I bring my captive train,
I pledge thee faith, my liege, my lord!—oh, break my father’s chain!”
Mount thy good horse, and thou and I will meet him on his way.”
Then lightly rose that loyal son, and bounded on his steed,
And urged, as if with lance in rest, the charger’s foamy speed.
With one that ’midst them stately rode, as a leader in the land;
“Now haste, Bernardo, haste! for there, in very truth, is he,
The father whom thy faithful heart hath yearned so long to see.”
He reached that gray-haired chieftain’s side, and there, dismounting, bent;
A lowly knee to earth he bent, his father’s hand he took,—
What was there in its touch that all his fiery spirit shook?
He looked up to the face above,—the face was of the dead!
A plume waved o’er the noble brow,—the brow was fixed and white;—
He met at last his father’s eyes,—but in them was no sight!
They hushed their very hearts, that saw its horror and amaze;
They might have chained him, as before that stony form he stood,
For the power was stricken from his arm, and from his lip the blood.
Talk not of grief till thou hast seen the tears of warlike men!
He thought on all his glorious hopes, and all his young renown;
He flung the falchion from his side, and in the dust sate down.
“No more, there is no more,” he said, “to lift the sword for now;
My king is false, my hope betrayed; my father—oh! the worth,
The glory, and the loveliness, are passed away from earth!
I would that there our kindred blood on Spain’s free soil had met!
Thou wouldst have known my spirit then; for thee my fields were won;
And thou hast perished in thy chains, as though thou hadst no son!”
Amidst the pale and wildered looks of all the courtier train;
And with a fierce o’ermastering grasp, the raging war-horse led,
And sternly set them face to face,—the king before the dead!
Be still, and gaze thou on, false king, and tell me what is this?
The voice, the glance, the heart I sought—give answer, where are they?
If thou wouldst clear thy perjured soul, send life through this cold clay!
Bid these white lips a blessing speak,—this earth is not my sire!
Give me back him for whom I strove, for whom my blood was shed,
Thou canst not?—and a king!—his dust be mountains on thy head!”
He cast one long, deep, troubled look,—then turned from that sad place.
His hope was crushed, his after-fate untold in martial strain:
His banner led the spears no more amidst the hills of Spain.