A Ballad of Love and Glory
Epigraph
Speak and tel us, our Ximena, looking northward far away,
O’er the camp of the invaders, o’er the
Mexican array,
Who is losing? who is winning? are
they far or come they near?
Look abroad, and tel us, sister, whither
rol s the storm we hear.
Down the hil s of Angostura stil the
storm of battle rol s;
Blood is owing, men are dying; God
have mercy on their souls!
Who is losing? who is winning? Over
hil and over plain,
I see but smoke of cannon clouding
through the mountain rain.’
—From “The Angels of Buena Vista,”
John Greenleaf Whittier, 1847