Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Rome, Ruins of | | Birds in the Baths of Diocletian | | Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902) |
| | | EGERIAN warbler! unseen rhapsodist! | |
| Whose carols antedate the Roman spring; | |
| Who, while the old gray walls, thy playmates, ring, | |
| Dost evermore on one deep strain insist; | |
| Flinging thy bell-notes through the sunset mist! | 5 |
| Touched by thy song rich weeds and wall-flowers swing | |
| As in a breeze, the twilight crimsoning | |
| That sucks from them aerial amethyst,— | |
| O for a sibyl’s insight to reveal | |
| That lore thou sing’st of! Shall I guess it? nay! | 10 |
| Enough to hear thy strain,—enough to feel | |
| O’er all the extended soul the freshness steal | |
| Of those ambrosial honeydews that weigh | |
| Down with sweet force the azure lids of day. | | | | |
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