Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Introductory | | Italy | | Samuel Rogers (1763–1855) |
| | | O ITALY, how beautiful thou art! | |
| Yet I could weep,—for thou art lying, alas, | |
| Low in the dust; and we admire thee now | |
| As we admire the beautiful in death. | |
| Thine was a dangerous gift, when thou wert born, | 5 |
| The gift of Beauty. Would thou hadst it not; | |
| Or wert as once, awing the caitiffs vile | |
| That now beset thee, making thee their slave! | |
| Would they had loved thee less, or feared thee more! | |
| —But why despair? Twice hast thou lived already; | 10 |
| Twice shone among the nations of the world, | |
| As the sun shines among the lesser lights | |
| Of heaven; and shalt again. The hour shall come | |
| When they who think to bind the ethereal spirit, | |
| Who, like the eagle cowering o’er his prey, | 15 |
| Watch with quick eye, and strike and strike again | |
| If but a sinew vibrate, shall confess | |
| Their wisdom folly. Even now the flame | |
| Bursts forth where once it burnt so gloriously, | |
| And, dying, left a splendor like the day, | 20 |
| That like the day diffused itself, and still | |
| Blesses the earth,—the light of genius, virtue, | |
| Greatness in thought and act, contempt of death, | |
| Godlike example. | | | | |
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