Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CHIMALPOA; A MONODRAMA - FOUNDED ON AN EVENT IN THE MEXICAN HISTORY, by ROBERT SOUTHEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Subjects! Friends! Children! I may call you my children Last Line: Perform your office! Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Death; Duty; History; Mexico; Public Worship; Sacrifices; Dead, The; Historians; Church Attendance | ||||||||
Scene, the Temple of Mexitli. SUBJECTS! friends! children! I may call you children For I have ever borne a father's love Towards you; it is thirteen years since first You saw me in the robes of royalty, Since here the multitudes of Mexico Hail'd me their king. I thank you friends that now In equal numbers and with equal love You come to grace my death. For thirteen years What I have been, ye know: that with all care, That with all justice and all gentleness Seeking your weal I govern'd. Is there one Whom I have injured ? one whose just redress I have denied, or baffled by delay? Let him come forth, that so no evil tongue Speak shame of me hereafter. O my people, Not by my deeds have I drawn down upon me The wrath of heaven. The wrath is heavy on me! Heavy! a burthen more than I can bear! I have endured contempt, insult and wrongs From that Acolhuan tyrant! should I seek Revenge? alas, my people, we are few, Feeble our growing state! it hath not yet Rooted itself to bear the hurricane; It is the lion-cub that tempts not yet The tiger's full-aged fury. Mexicans, He sent to bid me wear a woman's robe; When was the day that ever I look'd back In battle? Mexicans, the wife I loved, To faith and friendship trusted, in despite Of me, of heaven, he seized, and spurned her back Polluted!coward villain! and he lurks Behind his armies and his multitudes, And mocks my idle wrath!it is not fit It is not possible that I should live! Live! and deserve to be the finger-mark Of slave-contempt! his blood I cannot reach, But in my own all stains shall be effaced, It shall blot out the marks of infamy, And when the warriors of the days to come Shall speak of Chimalpoca, they shall say He died the brave man's death! Not of the god Unworthy, do I seek his altar thus, A voluntary victim. And perchance The sacrifice of life may profit you, My people, though all living efforts fail'd By fortune, not by fault. Cease your lament! And if your ill-doomed king deserved your love, Say of him to your children, "he was one Who bravely bore misfortune; who when life Became dishonour, shook his body off, And join'd the spirits of the heroes dead." Yes! not in Miclanteuctli's dark abode With cowards shall your king receive his doom; Not in the icy caverns of the north Suffer through endless ages! he shall join The spirits of the brave, with them at morn Shall issue from the eastern gate of heaven, And follow through his fields of light the sun, With them shall raise the song and weave the dance, Sport in the stream of splendour, company Down to the western palace of his rest The prince of glory, and with equal eye Endure his centered radiance. Not of you Forgetful, O my people, even then, But often in the amber cloud of noon Diffused, will I o'erspread your summer fields, And on the freshened maize and brightening meads Shower plenty. Spirits of my valiant sires, I come! Mexitli, never at thy shrine Flow'd braver blood! never a nobler heart Steam'd up its life to thee! priests of the god, Perform your office! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WHEELING GOSPEL TABERNACLE by JAMES WRIGHT GIRLS GOING TO CHURCH by JOHN CIARDI EFFECT OVER DISTANCE by ALBERT GOLDBARTH THE RESPECTABLE BURGHER, ON 'THE HIGHER CRITICISM' by THOMAS HARDY GOSPEL VILLANELLE by ANDREW HUDGINS SONG BEFORE SORROW by LOUISE A. BALDWIN REMARKS TO THE BACK OF A PEW by WILLIAM ROSE BENET WHITE SPIRITUAL by WILLIAM BERRY BISHOP BRUNO by ROBERT SOUTHEY |
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