Juan Francisco Manzano

WHEN I think on the course I have run,
From my childhood itself to this day,
I tremble, and fain would I shun,
...

CUBA, of what avail that thou art fair!
Pearl of the seas, the pride of the Antilles!
If thy poor sons, have still to see thee share
...

AN ODE.

YES, tho' in gloom and sadness I may rise,
One blessed strain can soothe my troubled soul,
...

CANTO I.
No more of rapine and its wasted plains,
Its stolen victims and unhallowed gains,
...

THE fire-fly is heedlessly wandering about,
Through field and through forest is winging his route,
As free as the butterfly sporting in air,
...

WHOEVER spent a night on an estate
In time of crop, and had endured of late
Fatigue and toil, that amply might dispose
...

THE Clock's too fast they say;
But what matter, how it gains!
Time will not pass away
Any faster for its pains.
...

ADDRESSED TO MY YOUNGER BROTHER

THOU knowest, dear Florence, my sufferings of old,
The struggles maintained with oppression for years,
...

Oh, thou dread scourge and terror of our race,
While thy strong hand bows down the proudest head,
Filling the earth with cries in every place,
...

Silence, audacious wickedness which aims
At honour's breast, or strikes with driftless breath,
The lightest word that's spoken thus defames,
...