Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Appendix: Arcetri | | Arcetri | | Samuel Rogers (1763–1855) |
| | (From Italy)
NEARER we hail | |
| Thy sunny slope, Arcetri, sung of old | |
| For its green wine; dearer to me, to most, | |
| As dwelt on by that great Astronomer, | |
| Seven years a prisoner at the city-gate, | 5 |
| Let in but in his grave-clothes. Sacred be | |
| His villa (justly was it called The Gem!) | |
| Sacred the lawn, where many a cypress threw | |
| Its length of shadow, while he watched the stars! | |
| Sacred the vineyard, where, while yet his sight | 10 |
| Glimmered, at blush of morn he dressed his vines, | |
| Chanting aloud in gayety of heart | |
| Some verse of Ariosto! There, unseen, | |
| In manly beauty Milton stood before him, | |
| Gazing with reverent awe,—Milton, his guest, | 15 |
| Just then come forth, all life and enterprise; | |
| He in his old age and extremity, | |
| Blind, at noonday exploring with his staff; | |
| His eyes upturned as to the golden sun, | |
| His eyeballs idly rolling. Little then | 20 |
| Did Galileo think whom he received; | |
| That in his hand he held the hand of one | |
| Who could requite him, who would spread his name | |
| O’er lands and seas,—great as himself, nay, greater; | |
| Milton as little that in him he saw, | 25 |
| As in a glass, what he himself should be, | |
| Destined so soon to fall on evil days | |
| And evil tongues,—so soon, alas, to live | |
| In darkness, and with dangers compassed round, | |
| And solitude. | 30 | | | |
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