Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Capri, the Island | | Capri | | Samuel Rogers (1763–1855) |
| | (From Italy)
WHAT the mountainous Isle | |
| Seen in the South? ’T is where a monster dwelt, | |
| Hurling his victims from the topmost cliff; | |
| Then and then only merciful, so slow, | |
| So subtle, were the tortures they endured. | 5 |
| Fearing and feared he lived, cursing and cursed; | |
| And still the dungeons in the rock breathe out | |
| Darkness, distemper. Strange, that one so vile | |
| Should from his den strike terror through the world; | |
| Should, where withdrawn in his decrepitude, | 10 |
| Say to the noblest, be they where they might, | |
| “Go from the earth!” and from the earth they went: | |
| Yet such things were, and will be, when mankind, | |
| Losing all virtue, lose all energy; | |
| And for the loss incur the penalty, | 15 |
| Trodden down and trampled. | | | | |
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