“Que era, decidme, la nación que un día
Reina del mundo proclamó el destino?...”
Quintana—Oda a España.
WHERE now that Nation proud which Destiny
Once did proclaim this world’s all conquering queen?
Where now that sceptre, that bright blazon seen
That mark’d her mistress over land and sea?
A lost emprise, a shattered galleon she,
Sails rent and hull agape that once have been
World-powerful; her rotting masts careen
With each dark surge of long-pent enmity.
On through sea’s salty wastes the tempests spurn,
The waves rebuff her; lights no more there gleam
Nor vergies wave on her high carven beam.
Stilled is the sailor’s jest, the skipper’s song;
In swirling fogs of night she drives along
With Helmsman Death stark-frozen at the stern!...