Indignation of a High-minded Spaniard
Indignation of a High-minded Spaniard - meaning Summary
Resisting Praise for a Tyrant
A proud Spanish speaker resists the justification of conquest. He says his country can bear devastation, death, and ruined temples as a tyrant’s appetite, but cannot tolerate the tyrant’s claim that he brings benefits or enlightenment. The poem locates the deepest humiliation in being offered paternalistic praise for subjugation; such rhetoric breaks the spirit and exposes a moral limit to endurance under oppression.
Read Complete AnalysesWE can endure that He should waste our lands, Despoil our temples, and by sword and flame Return us to the dust from which we came; Such food a Tyrant's appetite demands: And we can brook the thought that by his hands Spain may be overpowered, and he possess, For his delight, a solemn wilderness Where all the brave lie dead. But, when of bands Which he will break for us he dares to speak, Of benefits, and of a future day When our enlightened minds shall bless his sway; 'Then', the strained heart of fortitude proves weak; Our groans, our blushes, our pale cheeks declare That he has power to inflict what we lack strength to bear.
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