Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Modena | | Modena | | Alessandro Tassoni (1565–1635) |
| | (From La Secchia Rapita; Or, The Rape of the Bucket)
Translated by James Atkinson |
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MODENA stands upon a spacious plain, | |
| Hemmed in by ridges to the south and west, | |
| And rugged fragments of the lofty chain | |
| Of Apennine, whose elevated crest | |
| Sees the last sunbeam in the western main, | 5 |
| Glittering and fading on its rippling breast; | |
| And on the top with ice eternal crowned, | |
| The sky seems bending in repose profound. | |
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| The flowery banks where beautifully flow | |
| Panaro’s limpid waters, eastward lie; | 10 |
| In front Bologna, on the left the Po, | |
| Where Phaeton tumbled headlong from the sky; | |
| North, Secchia’s rapid stream is seen to go, | |
| With changeful course in whirling eddies by, | |
| Bursting the shores, and with unfruitful sand | 15 |
| Sowing the meadows and adjacent land. | | | |
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