Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Florence | | Giotto’s Campanile | | Sir Aubrey de Vere (1788–1846) |
| | | ENCHASED with precious marbles, pure and rare, | |
| How gracefully it soars, and seems the while | |
| From every polished stage to laugh and smile, | |
| Playing with sportive gleams of lucid air! | |
| Fit resting-place methinks its summit were | 5 |
| For a descended angel! happy isle, | |
| Mid life’s rough sea of sorrow, force, and guile, | |
| For saint of royal race, or vestal fair, | |
| In this seclusion,—call it not a prison,— | |
| Cloistering a bosom innocent and lonely. | 10 |
| O Tuscan Priestess! gladly would I watch | |
| All night one note of thy loud hymn to catch | |
| Sent forth to greet the sun, when first, new-risen, | |
| He shines on that aerial station only! | | | | |
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