Rio Janeiro

Rocks piled on rocks immense, mountains afar,   
  Their outline bold, drawn on the lofty sky.   
Dom Pedro, thou art safe! Thy bulwarks are   
  Impregnable, Brazilian liberty!   
Faction may ruin thee, but foreign war           
  Can ne’er assail thy strongholds. Live and die   
Free, then, Brazilian! See how bounteous Heaven   
For thy defence ramparts of rock hath given!   
 
Ye pyramids of Egypt, what are ye   
  To Nature’s pyramids, unnumbered here?           
Some stand like watch-towers distant in the sea,   
  As ’t were to signal give of danger near.   
Others on land all riven! Perchance they be   
  Remnants of giant strife full many a year   
Forgot. It may be they were rent asunder           
By Titans and by antediluvian thunder.   
 
Rocks piled on rocks in wild confusion rise,   
  Mountains uprear their snow-clad peaks afar,   
And on each headland bold, strong batteries   
  Bespeak the infant Empire ripe for war.           
Then the broad bay that, like some Scotch loch, lies   
  Encircled by steep hills, but lovelier far;   
Its thousand isles clothed with rich verdure seem   
All beauteous as the landscape of a dream.           
If it be truth, that nations still must bear   
The crushing yoke, the wasting fetters wear,—   
If to the people this be Heaven’s decree,   
To clasp their shame, nor struggle to be free,   
From truth so base my heart indignant turns,           
With freedom’s frenzy all my spirit burns,—   
That rage which ruled the Roman’s soul of fire,   
And filled thy heart, Columbia’s patriot sire!   
Cuba! thou still shalt rise, as pure, as bright,   
As thy free air,—as full of living light;           
Free as the waves that foam around thy strands,   
Kissing thy shores, and curling o’er thy sands!

(Extract)