Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CHIQUITA: A LEGEND OF THE WESTERN SEAS, by BARRETT EASTMAN First Line: Her name? Chiquita. Ah, senor Last Line: Farewell forever! Subject(s): Legends; Pride; Self-esteem; Self-respect | ||||||||
HER name? Chiquita. Ah, senor, See how the sea-weed winds around her! Dead? Yes; for many an hour before I came and found her. The gentle waves had laid her down Here on the sands, and heaped her over With soft, sweet-smelling foam, and brown Long-leaved sea clover. And hark! The sea-birds sing her dirge, And all the chorus of the ocean Makes mournful music, surge on surge, In sad devotion. Last night she lay within these arms Her mother's arms, senor, no other And in her sleep beheld the charms Of sleep's twin-brother. I know, for while I watched her, tears Gleamed in the low light of the embers; And then she sighed the sigh one hears And one remembers. From out her troubled lips words came Mixed with the sigh words wet with sorrow: "I die for thee!" and then a name, And then, "To-morrow" I did not understand, you see How could I tell her days were numbered? But God had willed this thing to be And I I slumbered. Well, now I find her dead and cold Senor, the story's old, but never Castilian blood grows cold or old It burns hot ever. Therefore I do not blame her no, Others have loved with song and laughter And then, through loving, learned to know What woe comes after. Love is a glorious thing, senor, When, in the dusk, guitars are playing And on the smooth adobe floor The dance is swaying But love is bitter when he goes And days pass on and leave one weeping The sun has blighted many a rose Given to his keeping. Well, so the world was made, and I Do not lament that darkness covers The shining brightness of the sky That smiles on lovers. To me night came long years ago Night in whose gloom I often stumbled But pride sustained me still, although My pride was humbled. Pride in Chiquita that was strong Pride in myself there's none remaining: This was my secret. Right or wrong, I'm not complaining That so it is, nor that all pride Has left me now all things are seeming; And out there, rocking with the tide, There is no dreaming Chiquita, daughter! We shall be Racked by regret from henceforth never. I seek the silence of the sea Farewell forever! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ROCK AND HAWK by ROBINSON JEFFERS GODOLPHIN HORNE, WHO WAS CURSED WITH THE SIN OF PRIDE, AND BECAME A BOOT-BLACK by HILAIRE BELLOC PRIDE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE THIN EDGE OF YOUR PRIDE: 1 by KENNETH REXROTH PRIMER LESSON by CARL SANDBURG HAEC FABULA DOCET by ROBERT FROST VICTIM OF HIMSELF by MARVIN BELL |
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