Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Loretto | | The “Santa Casa” at Loretto | | Sir Aubrey de Vere (1814–1902) |
| | | A POET’S, not a pilgrim’s, vow was mine; | |
| And with unworthy eyes, though pleased, I scanned | |
| That house walled round with sculptured forms divine, | |
| Labor illustrious of a Tuscan hand: | |
| If angels hither from earth’s holiest strand | 5 |
| Wafted the hut those sumptuous walls enshrine, | |
| Not less the artist here with potent wand | |
| Wafts back the wanderer’s soul to Palestine: | |
| There lays, there lulls it in a peaceful haven, | |
| O’er which, distinct as stars o’er sleeping seas, | 10 |
| All Christian truths and human, blended, bow, | |
| Embodied in those gospel imageries. | |
| Of song-raised temples we have heard ere now,— | |
| Lo, here a visible hymn in marble graven! | | | | |
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