Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Florence | | Florence | | Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) |
| | (From The Garden of Boccaccio)
THE BRIGHTNESS of the world, O thou once free, | |
| And always fair, rare land of courtesy! | |
| O Florence! with the Tuscan fields and hills, | |
| And famous Arno, fed with all their rills; | |
| Thou brightest star of star-bright Italy! | 5 |
| Rich, ornate, populous, all treasures thine, | |
| The golden corn, the olive, and the vine. | |
| Fair cities, gallant mansions, castles old, | |
| And forests, where beside his leafy hold | |
| The sullen boar hath heard the distant horn, | 10 |
| And whets his tusks against the gnarled thorn; | |
| Palladian palace with its storied halls; | |
| Fountains, where Love lies listening to their falls; | |
| Gardens, where flings the bridge its airy span, | |
| And Nature makes her happy home with man; | 15 |
| Where many a gorgeous flower is duly fed | |
| With its own rill, on its own spangled bed, | |
| And wreathes the marble urn, or leans its head, | |
| A mimic mourner, that with veil withdrawn | |
| Weeps liquid gems, the presents of the dawn; | 20 |
| Thine all delights, and every muse is thine; | |
| And more than all, the embrace and intertwine | |
| Of all with all in gay and twinkling dance! | |
| Mid gods of Greece and warriors of romance, | |
| See! Boccace sits, unfolding on his knees | 25 |
| The new-found roll of old Mæonides; | |
| But from his mantle’s fold, and near the heart, | |
| Peers Ovid’s holy book of Love’s sweet smart! | | | | |
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