Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Messina | | Messina | | Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805) |
| | (From The Bride of Messina)
Translated by A. Lodge
YES! pleased, on our land, from his azure way, | |
| The Sun ever smiles with unclouded ray. | |
| But never, fair isle, shall thy sons repose | |
| Mid the sweets which the faithless waves enclose. | |
| On their bosom they wafted the corsair bold | 5 |
| With his dreaded barks to our coast of old. | |
| For thee was thy dower of beauty vain, | |
| ’T was the treasure that lured the spoiler’s train. | |
| O, ne’er from these smiling vales shall rise | |
| A sword for our vanquished liberties; | 10 |
| ’T is not where the laughing Ceres reigns, | |
| And the jocund lord of the flowery plains: | |
| Where the iron lies hid in the mountain cave | |
| Is the cradle of Empire,—the home of the brave! | | | | |
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