Romance

When I was but thirteen or so
I went into a golden land,
Chimborazo, Cotopaxi
Took me by the hand.

My father died, my brother too,
They passed like fleeting dreams,
I stood where Popocatapetl
In the sunlight gleams.

I dimly heard the master's voice
And boys far-off at play, ---
Chimborazo, Cotopaxi
Had stolen me away.

I walked in a great golden dream
To and fro from school ---
Shining Popocatapetl
The dusty streets did rule.

I walked home with a gold dark boy
And never a word I'd say,
Chimborazo, Cotopaxi
Had taken my speech away.

I gazed entranced upon his face
Fairer than any flower ---
O shining Popocatapetl
It was thy magic hour:

The houses, people, traffic seemed
Thin fading dreams by day;
Chimborazo, Cotopaxi,
They had stolen my soul away!

Commentary

The title says it all…

An unabashedly romantic poem (don’t say you weren’t warned!), and not a very good one - the imagery is uninspired, the prosody unremarkable, the theme ordinary. And yet… for some reason (no doubt measureless to man) it’s one of those poems which stick in the memory. I remember reading it when I was very young; I rediscovered it last year, and the magic still remains.

The key ingredient of the spell is, of course, the evocativeness¹ of the place names. The poem is carried by the effect of the simple yet beautiful refrain - ‘Chimborazo, Cotopaxi’. (and the equally nice counterpoint ‘Popocatapetl’). And indeed, place names in general do tend to conjure up wonderful images - think of Samarkand and Byzantium, Troy and Carthage, Timbuktu and Tokyo, the Khyber Pass and the Oregon Trail, the Silk Road and the Sahara… Turner was merely the first poet to make explicit use of this particular form of magic in such a direct fashion.

— Thomas

Links

A similar poem is Joyce Kilmer’s ‘Trees’ - nothing remarkable, but it sticks in your mind. You can read it at poem #146

There it is, that word again. If I had a penny for every time I’ve used it on the Minstrels… ↩

The Wondering Minstrels, poem #238 · 18 October 1999

Poem selected by Abraham Thomas

Fair use

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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.

LesGdd · 12 November 2001

I disagree. I think there is far more to this poem than exotic place names. True, it is not the deeepest poem ever written but I think its power and memorability is in its simplicity. It is warm and evocative and like the volcanos mentioned posseses a deep, smoldering, hidden power. That is why it sticks in the mind.

Ru Freeman · 21 March 2002

I feel the same way. It isn’t the greatest poem on earth, but there is more to this than the mere repition of place names. A sense of wonder and otherworldliness and a childlike hypnotism associated with the references to family and to the volcanoes. I learned this poem as a small child and it has never left me, even though I remembered only whisps and fragmants. So much so that I call my new baby Chimborazo! and my older daughter has a Popercaterpetl and a my younger, a Cotapaxi among their menagerie of stuffed animals!

Neil Coward · 31 March 2002

And old fella I know, who is just over 70 years old and not at all into the internet quoted a line from this poem. He had learnt it at school and wanted to find the poem. (This is getting like the J. R. Hatley yellow pages ads..) Thanks to your site I managed to track the poem down quite easily with a search on ‘Chimborazo Cotopaxi’ so many thanks!.

As to the poem itself, well it makes your arm hurt if you try and write it down quickly….

Stuart Coulter · 11 July 2002

I would like to add to our comments on the above E mail.For some reason my son’s E mail address defaulted onto MY message;I would like to point out that I am female! Alison Coulter-no doubt the same will happen again!

Stuart Coulter · 11 July 2002

I have just found an old exercise book from my school days in 1970 with this much loved poem in it but unfortunately eaten by bugs and mice! I could JUST make out some of the lines and vaguely remembered a few but only had to type in “Cotopaxi poem” to find it again on your site-many thanks.I have always adored it and as others have said just adored the romantic place names and childish images of handsome boys!! I see you have many other poems on your page and will have a good look at the Tennyson ones in particular as he is an ancestor of mine-something like my great great Grandfather was his brother Frederick-always have to look at the family tree to get the number of greats right!Any other Tennysons out there?My mother was Phyllis Tennyson before she married.thank you for supplying such a great site.

MHalferty · 13 August 2002

When I was 18 I worked giving measles vaccinations in Guanujo, a tiny village on the shoulder of Chimborazo. As I hiked the foothills each day the verses of this poem resonated in my mind. My experience was that Chimborazo, Cotopaxi had stolen me away. As a result of this experience I have become an avid mountain climber and am planning to return to Ecuador next year to summit both Mt Chimborazo and Mt. Cotopaxi. I believe the magic and the unforgettable quality of this poem is a reflection of the power and majesty of these peaks.

Forester Andy · 29 August 2002

I’ve wandered in the shadow of all three of these volcanoes wishing I could remember that poem … Before Eastern Airlines failed, one of their flights out of Lima flew took me over the craters of both Chimborazo and Cotapaxi, clearing them by only 7000 feet–a stunning sight and the only decent thing I can remember about this awful airline. My camera jammed-up wouldn’t ya know it?

A word of caution: most people pronounce the Mexican volcano as a string of three, double syllables whereas it is really two words of three syallables. The name translates from the Nahautl as Smoking Mountain “Popoca” [=smoking] and “Tepetl” [=mountain] so it’s
“Pop-oca-tep-etl” not, as most people say, “Popa-Cata-Petal”. Consider the Aztec deity Chimalpopoca [= Smoking Mirror] which is similarly pronounded “Chimal - popoca”…

Finally, in my anthology the volcano is mispelled as Popocatapetl [i.e., with an “a” rather than an “e”] which makes me think that Turner also incorrectly pronounced the name. No Mexican would ever say “Popa-Cata-Petal” …

Andrew Forester

Deaneille Dean · 30 January 2003

Hi there,

It is so amazing that I have a similar story to those who commented on this poem. I did this in secondary school in Trinidad and Tobago, and presently I’m in college in the US; I studied literature for both O’s and A levels, but I had read ‘Romance’ when I was about 12 and I only remembered a few phrases.

Anyway, I resurrected it because for my college lit class, I need to present a poem, and I passed over Elliot , Shakespeare and Hughes for this one. What is the appeal? I believe it’s the imagery, simple phrasing and rhyme along with juxtaposing of these exotic mountains with everyday life, with the mystiscm of them transcending the ordinary.

A poem doesn’t have to be complex, and written in the 19th cen to be good. When it appeals to our simple emotions, that’s even better.

Thanks
Deaneille

William Illing · 13 May 2003

I too remember this from school. A unforgettable resonation in my the mind. A beautiful mystic of far off places. But I wonder about its implied sexuality. There are the words that imply that the romance is not for the dusty streets, but for the gold dark boy. Substitute golden dark girl and you may appreciate my meaning. That said, and please don’t confuse me with someone who is homophobic, it does not detract from the beauty of the poem

Roy Illing

Ed · 4 September 2003

W.J Turner, the poet, though born in Australia, was much better known later on as a music critic in London and wrote a well-known essay on Mozart (His opinions in this seem rather strange to me.) and two other books: one on English music and the other on Hector Berlioz which is probably his best work.

Jane Brunton · 28 February 2004

My former mother-in-law quoted this poem to me when I met my own “gold dark boy”, my second husband, who is from Ecuador. We subsequently went to live there for ten years and I saw Chimborazo and Cotopaxi regularly, from trains, buses and planes.

Mysterious Chimborazo is often cloud covered and one counts oneself lucky when she reveals herself to you for a moment or two.

I wonder why Turner mixed in the image of Mexico’s Popocatapetl? Maybe he just liked the sound of it. I agree with those who say it is the imagery of these far away places and interesting names that seem to haunt the mind.

Glad I found the poem. Great site.

Orbra Bliss · 15 December 2004

It is incredible, reading these comments, that so many have had the same experience as I. I could relate to almost all of them, except perhaps the comment by that kid named Neil Coward and his comment about the “old fella” who was over 70 and not into the Internet. That’s really sad. I couldn’t really relate to that. ;o) (I say this with a smile, as I know his perspective will change eventually.)

In 1943, when I was in third grade, the teacher would read poetry to us during our, so called, rest period. She read them with much expression and I enjoyed listening, but most were soon forgotten. All except for a phrase from one of the poems which got stuck in my brain. For years afterward, the whispered phrase “Chimborazo Cotopaxi” would pop out and start running around in my head. I didn’t know the name of the poem, nor much else about it. I knew those were the names of two mountains in South America, but otherwise didn’t give it much significance. After schooling was finished, I went to live and work in Africa for a number of years. But, then came the day, 37 years after those third grade rest periods, when I was on a plane arriving in Quito, Ecuador. Over the western ridge and heading up the valley toward the Quito airport and right off to the side, for the first time, I saw the Cotopaxi that might steal my heart away. For the next six years, Cotopaxi, with her “eyebrow”, was an almost daily sight, except when veiled with clouds. Frequent trips south, over the paramo on a clear day, gave a majestic view of Chimborazo, with her three lomas glistening in the sun. Yes, you can leave them, but they never leave you. I now have the images to go with the phrase I heard so long ago and I am sure they will never go away.

Five years ago, I was again able to return to Ecuador for six months. This time to Pifo, on the eastern side of the valley. The window of the dining room framed a view of Cotopaxi. Almost every morning, I ate my breakfast as I watched the sun come over the eastern ridge and start illuminating her snowcap in an orange pink light, often against a deep blue sky. Cotopaxi changes from day to day and month to month. Sometimes she wears a bonnet of clouds, sometimes it’s just a wreath or maybe a scarf of clouds trailing out in the wind. At one time, I had pictures of that scene posted on a website. It’s gone now, but when I can get some time, I want to get another one set up. I would recommend to anyone that, if at all possible, they travel to see Chimborazo, Cotopaxi and all their many beautiful siblings. Ecuadorians are very gracious people and it is an experience that will stay with you for a lifetime.

Orbra Bliss

Carolyn Bunch · 10 May 2005

Many thanks for helping me track down this poem. Through the years I have been giving Wallace Stevens credit for it in my mind. Clearly, it doesn’t sound like him, but that’s the way it was embedded.
True, this poem is not profound - but to me it embodies the particular detachment of a creative person who contructs a world of his/her own. There is a self-isolating and comforting beauty in such a world. Not too socially praiseworthy perhaps, but very satisfying.
You have given me new destination. Ecuador it is. Carolyn Bunch

Carolyn Bunch · 10 May 2005

Thank you

A&H Urquhart · 23 October 2006

Just two hours ago I returned from Mexico City from where I took a taxi to Popocatapetl. The name had been with me since the early 1950’s when I read Turner’s poem though I did not recall the poet’s name. I checked the old-fashioned way in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations and found the first four lines only with no reference to “El Popo” as it is called in Mexico.

The mountain is spectacular and is flanked by another volcano called “Itzaccihuatl”. I would not have made the two hour journey but for the poem and I add my thanks to those previously registered.

Alastair.

Fredadneale · 19 March 2007

I read this poem at grammar school in the 1930s and the imagery has stayed with me. But as nobody explained it to us, for many years I took it literally, and thought the orphaned boy really had been taken to these places. Nor were we told where the volcanoes are and, as geography was not my strong point, I had no idea they were in two separate countries. Freda

ESSIE297 · 13 June 2007

True it is not the greatest poem ever written so why has it stuck in my mind for nearly 30 yrs?I was taught this poem by a teacher who was also clearly smitten with it.At six years old I didn’t have the foggiest idea what she was talking about but I still remember every line.Surely this in itself makes it a great poem

Allan Peter · 17 April 2008

I’ve just read some of the other comments. As Longfellow said in his “The Day is Done” — “Read from some humbler poet, whose songs gushed from his heart”. He also said to read poetry out loud, — “… lend to the rhyme of the poet the beauty of thy voice”. I would say good advice for any poem that has lots of exotic names (eg. Ozymandias, Xanadu and Kubla Khan, to name a few that come immediately to mind). APWB

Allan Peter · 17 April 2008

During WWII, when “I was but thirteen or so” I was sent out of England where there food rationing, and went to Canada, “A golden land”, where there was ice cream of every flavor imaginable. Years later I got to Australia, and found out Turner was Australian. Romance was my favorite until I read his The Hunter (Yucatan). Worth a search. APWB.