Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Baja (Baiæ) | | Ruins of Cornelia’s House | | Sir Aubrey de Vere (1788–1846) |
| | | I TURN from ruins of imperial power, | |
| Tombs of corrupt delight, old walls the pride | |
| Of statesmen pleased for respite brief to hide | |
| Their laurelled foreheads in the Muses’ bower, | |
| And seek Cornelia’s home. At sunset’s hour | 5 |
| How oft her eyes, that wept no more, descried | |
| Yon purpling hills! How oft she heard that tide | |
| Fretting as now low cave or hollow tower! | |
| The mother of the Gracchi! Scipio’s child!— | |
| ’T was virtue such as hers that built her Rome! | 10 |
| Never towards it she gazed! Far off her home | |
| She made, like her great father self-exiled. | |
| Woe to the nations when the souls they bare, | |
| Their best and bravest, choose their rest elsewhere! | | | | |
|
|
