I

A glorious people vibrated again

The lightning of the nations: Liberty

From heart to heart, from tower to tower, o'er Spain,

Scattering contagious fire into the sky,

Gleamed. My soul spurned the chains of its dismay,

And in the rapid plumes of song

Clothed itself, sublime and strong;

As a young eagle soars the morning clouds among,

Hovering inverse o'er its accustomed prey;

Till from its station in the Heaven of fame

The Spirit's whirlwind rapped it, and the ray

Of the remotest sphere of living flame

Which paves the void was from behind it flung.

As foam from a ship's swiftness, when there came

A voice out of the deep: I will record the same.