“Que era, decidme, la nación que un día

Reina del mundo proclamó el destino?...”

Quintana—Oda a España.

WHERE now that Nation proud which Destiny

Once did proclaim this world’s all conquering queen?

Where now that sceptre, that bright blazon seen

That mark’d her mistress over land and sea?

A lost emprise, a shattered galleon she,

Sails rent and hull agape that once have been

World-powerful; her rotting masts careen