Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.
Sicily
By Samuel Greene Wheeler Benjamin (1837–1914)A
Green hills and slopes, bright with perennial spring,
And domes and airy spires, faint glittering
Through their light wreaths of sea-mist, greet the eye,
While, floating wildly o’er the deep-blue sea,
The boatman’s music lulls the enchanted ear.
Sicilia’s island this, the sister fair
Who sweetly smiles on vine-clad Italy:
Alike the sharer of her sons of song,
Her black-eyed maids, her heroes, and her arts;
And drunk alike with blood of patriot hearts,
She rises, phœnix-like, from tyrants’ wrong,
And asks thee, traveller, if thy wandering e’en
Have ever gazed upon a lovelier scene.