Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Americas: Vol. XXX. 1876–79.
Mexico
By Nicholas Michell (1807–1880)(From Ruins of Many Lands)
F
Saw ruthless strangers waste her peaceful plains,
Where are the stately domes she reared of old,
Her terraced shrines that blazed with gems and gold?
Where her white-feathered chiefs that lined each steep,
Like foamy waves which crest the breezy deep?
Alas! her tale is traced in tears and flame;
Let History blush to write a Cortes’ name;
Lo! where the fires ascend from yonder vale!
Ye hear the stake-bound victims’ dying wail.
Doth not a groan each turf-clad barrow yield,
From those who fell on red Otumba’s field?
While on each murmuring wind that wanders by
Floats royal Montezuma’s fruitless sigh.
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