Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A HERO OF CARACAS, by EDNA DEAN PROCTOR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A HERO OF CARACAS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Caracas! When I think of thee
Last Line: Defender of his native land.
Alternate Author Name(s): Dean
Subject(s): Caracas, Venezuela; Freedom; Heroism; Spain; Liberty; Heroes; Heroines


CARACAS! when I think of thee
I hear the bells chime tunefully,
The bells of Spain that mark the hour
Within thy gray cathedral tower,
And echo sweet and faint and far
Where Ávila's green summits bar,
Beyond the vale, the northern sea —
The shining, storied Caribee.

Superb in bronze and porphyries
I see, within the plaza trees,
Victorious thy Bolívar ride;
And 'gainst the mountain's bosky side,
Within the Pantheon where rest
Thy noblest and thy mightiest,
In stately pomp his urn enshrined,
A pæan sung by every wind!
And lo, to south, our Washington
Faces serene the tropic sun,
Benignant, firm, thy hills before,
As on his fair Potomac shore,
And at his feet, in endless May,
Thy merry, dark-browed children play:
Honor is his, by every sea,
Who won the world for Liberty!
But where is bronze or urn for him
Whose fame should never lapse or dim
While Caribee thy border laves?
Hast thou no grave, of all thy graves,
To give the boldest of thy braves?
No pedestal whereon to set
The chief nor peaks nor vales forget? —
Great Guaicaipu'ro, name to raise
The dead with, and to crown with bays!

Mould in metal or carve in stone
This Indian hero! Make him known
With thy Bolívar as he stood,
Despairing, fierce, that night of blood
When country, freedom, life were lost
As round him closed the invading host
With thrust of sword and pall of flame
And shouts that stayed the stars in shame;
And, dying, to his gods he cried
For vengeance, and in crying, died! ...
Set the statue where all may heed,
And on its flawless marble read
(Perchance his curse were lighter thus —
Lifted a shadow from thy strand)
To Guaicaipu'ro valorous,
Defender of his native land.





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