Poems (Rice)/Cuba

by Maria Theresa Rice

CUBA.

I GREET thee, Cuba! with thy fruits and flowers,
 Thy soft blue skies, where summer ever reigns;
On spirit wings I seek thy leafy bowers,
 Sun-gilded hill-tops, and thy gorgeous plains.

Years have flown since first o'er thee I wandered,
 Beneath thy palms and orange-perfumed shade,
O'er myriad lovely plants in rapture pondered,
 Then sighed, alas! the beautiful must fade.

Thy dark-eyed daughters now are softly gliding
 Round corridors; I see their raven hair,
Their gossamer robes, and hear sweet tones confiding,
 Then in the cathedral see them bowed in prayer.

Bright plumed birds! I seem to hear them singing
 "Mid shining leaves that quiver at their lay,
Then from golden boughs their pathway winging,
 Evanish in resplendent beams of day.

'Mid spicy groves thy crystal founts are flashing,
 Flinging a silver spray o'er drooping flowers:
Against thy coral rocks dark waves are dashing,
 And turrets gleam beside old Moro's towers.

If the pure floods of heavenly sunlight, falling
 On palace domes, could melt the iron rod
Which rules thy people, who in chains are galling,
 Thou mightst be truly free to worship God.

In winning thee our nation's wish seems ended,
 Throwing its peaceful mantle o'er thy breast—
Another star amid our azure blended,
 Thy liberty could never be supprest.