Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland: Vols. XIV–XV. 1876–79.

Spain: Toledo

Toledo

By Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)

(From The Vision of Don Roderick)

REARING their crests amid the cloudless skies,

And darkly clustering in the pale moonlight,

Toledo’s holy towers and spires arise,

As from a trembling lake of silver white.

Their mingled shadows intercept the sight

Of the broad burial-ground outstretched below,

And naught disturbs the silence of the night;

All sleeps in sullen shade or silver glow,

All save the heavy swell of Teio’s ceaseless flow.

All save the rushing swell of Teio’s tide,

Or distant heard a courser’s neigh or tramp,

Their changing rounds as watchful horsemen ride,

To guard the limits of King Roderick’s camp.

For through the river’s night-fog rolling damp

Was many a proud pavilion dimly seen,

Which glimmered back, against the moon’s fair lamp,

Tissues of silk and silver-twisted sheen,

And standards proudly pitched, and warders armed between.