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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONG OF THE SPANISH WANDERER by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS

Poet Analysis

First Line: PILGRIM! OH SAY, HATH THY CHEEK BEEN FANNED
Last Line: THEY SLEEP IN THY VALLEYS, MY SUNNY SPAIN!
Subject(s): SPAIN;

PILGRIM! oh say, hath thy cheek been fanned
By the sweet winds of my sunny land?
Knowest thou the sound of its mountain pines?
And hast thou rested beneath its vines?

Hast thou heard the music still wandering by,
A thing of the breezes, in Spain's blue sky,
Floating away o'er hill and heath
With the myrtle's whisper, the citron's breath?

Then say, are there fairer vales than those
Where the warbling of fountains forever flows?
Are there brighter flowers than mine own, which wave
O'er Moorish ruin and Christian grave?

O sunshine and song! they are lying far
By the streams that look to the western star;
My heart is fainting to hear once more
The water-voices of that sweet shore.

Many were they that have died for thee,
And brave, my Spain! though thou art not free;
But I call them blest -- they have rent their chain --
They sleep in thy valleys, my sunny Spain!



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