Oriental Scenes, Dramatic Sketches and Tales/Stanzas—Land of Romance
STANZAS.
Land of Romance!
Fair and jocund France!
From thy green meads, and from thy sunny rills,
Thy laughing plains, and from thy vine-clad hills,
Thy dark-eyed maids advance;
And while the pipe its gentle music trills
They wreathe the graceful dance.
Land of Romance!
Fair and fertile France!
When music's voice o'er hill and dell and plain
Had ceased, the minstrel harp, the vocal strain,
Waked from their long long trance—
The Troubadour's soft lay revived again
By thy bright wave, Durance!
Land of the brave and free!
Imperial Germany!
By thy grape-clustered rocks, thy lofty towers,
Thy fair broad rivers, and thy princely bowers,
The warrior's minstrelsy
Resounds—and mid the fairest sweetest flowers
Up springs the laurel tree.
Land of the brave and free!
Imperial Germany!
Deep in the bosom of thy dark pine woods,
Thy mountain mines, and o'er thy angry floods,
Wild as the revelry:
Of winds and waves, dwell the unhallowed broods
Of dreaming phantasy.
Land of melody!
Tuneful Italy!
To thy enchanting balmy vales belong
The spirit and the soul of melting song;
They breathe, they dwell with thee—
Floating thy bowery myrtle groves among,
Echoes of long past poesy.
Land of melody!
Tuneful Italy!
Each ruined palace and each classic shrine,
Filled with man's works, yet more than half divine,
Swells the rapt heart with extasy.
The sculptor's work, the painter's bold design
Were both inspired by thee.
Fancy's bright domain!
Chivalric Spain!
Thy broad sierras, and thy olive glades,
The gentle music of thy serenades,
Thy fierce and martial train—
Thy midnight masquings, and thy falchion blades
Bring knighthood's days again.
Fancy's bright domain!
Chivalric Spain!
From thy last words[1], the wanderer hears afar
The tinkling of the fond and wild guitar,
And lovers to the moon complain;
But at the first shrill trump of war,
Each breaks his silken chain.