III.

Thy Godlike crime was to be kind,
To render with thy precepts less

The sum of human wretchedness,

And strengthen Man with his own mind;
But baffled as thou wert from high,

Still in thy patient energy,

In the endurance, and repulse

Of thine impenetrable Spirit,

Which Earth and Heaven could not convulse, A mighty lesson we inherit :

Thou art a symbol and a sign

To Mortals of their fate and force;

Like thee, Man is in part divine,

A troubled stream from a pure source;

And Man in portions can foresee

His own funereal destiny;

His wretchedness, and his resistance,

And his sad unallied existence :

To which his Spirit may oppose

Itself an equal to all woes,

And a firm will, and a deep sense, Which even in torture can descry

Its own concenter'd recompense, Triumphant where it dares defy,

And making Death a Victory.

ROMANCE MUY DOLOROSO

DEL

SITIO Y TOMA DE ALHAMA.

The effect of the original Ballad (which existed both in Spanish and Arabic) was such that it was forbidden to be sung by the Moors, on pain of death, within Granada.

ROMANCE MUY DOLOROSO

DEL

SITIO Y TOMA DE ALHAMA,

El qual dezia en Aravigo assi.

1.

PASSEAVASE el Rey Moro
Por la ciudad de Granada,

Desde las puertas de Elvira

Hasta las de Bivarambla.

Ay de mi, Alhama!

2.

Cartas le fueron venidas

Que Alhama era ganada.

Las cartas echò en el fuego,

Y al mensagero matava.

Ay de mi, Alhama!