THE TOWER OF MUNION.[1]
Dark-shadow'd giant! shame of proud Castille,
Castle without bridge, battlements or towers,
In whose wide halls now loathsome reptiles steal,
Where nobles once and warriors held their bowers!
Tell me, where are they? where thy tapestries gay,
Thy hundred troubadours of lofty song?
Thy mouldering ruins in the vale decay,
Thou humbled warrior! time has quell'd the strong
Thy name and history to oblivion thrown,
The world forgets that there thou standst, Munion.
To me thou art a spectre, shade of grief!
With black remembrances my soul's o'ercast;
To me thou art a palm with wither'd leaf,
Burnt by the lightning, bow'd beneath the blast.
I, wandering bard, proscribed perchance my doom
In the bier's dust nor name, nor glory know;
With useless toil my brow 's consumed in gloom;
Of her I loved, dark dwelling-place below,
Whom I was robb'd of, angel from above,
Cursed be thy name, thy soil, as was my love.
- ↑ This tower is a shapeless ruin, the remains of an ancient castle in the plain of Arlanza near Burgos. The history of the castle is unknown, further than that Don Fernan Gonzalez assembled there, on one occasion, the Grandees of Castille, during his wars with the Moors.
