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(From Madoc)
FROM early morning till the midnoon hour | |
| We travelled in the mountains; then a plain | |
| Opened below, and rose upon the sight, | |
| Like boundless ocean from a hill-top seen. | |
| A beautiful and populous plain it was; | 5 |
| Fair woods were there, and fertilizing streams, | |
| And pastures spreading wide, and villages | |
| In fruitful groves embowered, and stately towns, | |
| And many a single dwelling specking it, | |
| As though for many a year the land had been | 10 |
| The land of peace. Below us, where the base | |
| Of the great mountain to the level sloped, | |
| A broad blue lake extended far and wide | |
| Its waters, dark beneath the light of noon. | |
| There Aztlan stood upon the farther shore: | 15 |
| Amid the shade of trees its dwellings rose, | |
| Their level roofs with turrets set around, | |
| And battlements all burnished white, which shone | |
| Like silver in the sunshine. I beheld | |
| The imperial city, her far-circling walls, | 20 |
| Her garden groves and stately palaces, | |
| Her temple’s mountain-size, her thousand roofs; | |
| And when I saw her might and majesty | |
My mind misgave me then.
We reached the shore: | |
| A floating islet waited for me there, | 25 |
| The beautiful work of man. I set my feet | |
| Upon green-growing herbs and flowers, and sate | |
| Embowered in odorous shrubs: four long light boats | |
| Yoked to the garden, with accordant song, | |
| And dip and dash of oar in harmony, | 30 |
| Bore me across the lake. | |
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