Page:Hemans Miscellaneous Poetry 4.pdf/12

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Original source: The Monthly Magazine, Volume 6, 1828 (not at present accessible);
Taken from The Museum of Foreign Literature and Science, 1828, Pages 475-476.


From the Monthly Magazine.

THE KING OF ARRAGON'S LAMENT FOR HIS BROTHER.*[1]

"If I could see him, it were well with me!"
Coleridge's Wallenstein.


There were lights and sounds of revelling in the vanquished city's halls,
As by night the feast of victory was held within its walls;
And the conquerors filled the wine-cup high, after years of bright blood shed;
But their Lord, the King of Arragon, 'midst the triumph, wailed the dead.

He looked down from the fortress won, on the tents and towers below,
The moon-lit sea, the torch-lit streets—and a gloom came o'er his brow:
The voice of thousands floated up, with the horn and cymbals' tone;
But his heart, 'midst that proud music, felt more utterly alone.

And he cried, "Thou art mine, fair city! thou city of the sea!
But oh! what portion of delight is mine at last in thee?
—I am lonely 'midst thy palaces, while the glad waves past them roll,
And the soft breath of thine orange-bowers is mournful to my soul.