dots-menu
×

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

Spain: Escurial (Escorial), the

The Escorial

By Luis de Góngora (1561–1627)

Translated by Edward Churton

THIS gorgeous sacred dome,—no pile profane,—

Whose glories leave the clouds of morn outdone,

Flouting the sun-rays, where in dazzling stone

The columns rise like giants from the plain,

Provokes no wrath from heaven, no jealous pain

In day’s bright lord. The splendor but makes known

A temple reared to Spain’s great martyred son

By the great king of ever-faithful Spain.

A great religion works this marvel rare,

Meet for the monarch, whose unquestioned sway

The new-found West and Eastern Indians own:

Stern Fate, be gentle: Time, the beauty spare

Of this eighth wonder; spare for many a day

In peaceful age our second Solomon.