Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Rome | | To Rome | | Giovanni Guidiccioni (1480–1541) |
| | Anonymous translation
THOU noble nurse of many a warlike chief, | |
| Who in more brilliant times the world subdued; | |
| Of old, the shrines of gods in beauty stood | |
| Within thy walls, where now are shame and grief: | |
| I hear thy broken voice demand relief, | 5 |
| And sadly o’er thy faded fame I brood,— | |
| Thy pomps no more, thy temples fallen and rude, | |
| Thine empire shrunk within a petty fief. | |
| Slave as thou art, if such thy majesty | |
| Of bearing seems, thy name so holy now, | 10 |
| That even thy scattered fragments I adore,— | |
| How did they feel who saw thee throned on high | |
| In pristine splendor, while thy glorious brow | |
| The golden diadem of nations bore? | | | | |
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