Poems (Allen)/Castles in Spain

by Elizabeth Chase Allen

CASTLES IN SPAIN.

IT down beside me, my love and my pride,
Ere the stars brighten the sweet eventide;
 Clasp in your true hand my fingers again;
 Tell me the tale of our castles in Spain!

Let the proud pass with their grandeur and gold;
Riches like ours are not purchased or sold;
 Little we cam for the greed or the gain,—
 We, the possessors of castles in Spain!

Wealth may exult in the pomp it creates,—
Naught the world knows of our foreign estates;
 Little it thinks that, afar o'er the main,
 Rise the fair walls of our castles in Spain!

What though our station be low and obscure!
What though we struggle and strive and endure!
 What do we care for the wind and the rain?
 They never beat on our castles in Spain!

Sorrows will come to us, ere we are old,
True hearts may leave us, and warm ones grow cold,
 Yet shall we find all our dear ones again,
 Fond as of old, in our castles in Spain!

So we are happy,— and when by and by
Under the clover together we lie,
 Birds in the branches will sing the refrain,
 "Gone to look after their castles in Spain!"