Approached by winding avenues, Grenada lay in sight—
Gay pleasure-grounds and gardens basked in the dazzling light;
To groves of palm and cypress flocked birds of plumage rare,
And happy genii were afloat upon enchanted air.
Throned on a height, commanding the Darro’s vale of flowers,
I saw the red Alhambra’s tall battlements and towers;
Oh! would that mine were language to paint its pictured walls,
Its colonnades and court-yards, its galleries and halls.
Methought the dreams of childhood were realized at last,
And magic hands uplifted a pall that hid the past,