YOU who were once bereft of Rome With but the Apennines between, And went no more beyond the foam, But loved your Italy at home As others loved her seen: You knew each old imperial shaft With sculpture laureled to the blue; Where martyr bled and tyrant laughed; Where Horace his Falernian quaffed, And where the vintage grew. The Forum's half-unopened book You would have pondered well and long; And loved St. Peter's misty look, With vesper chantings in some nook Of far-receding song. Oft had you caught the silver gleams Of Roman fountains. To your art They add no music. Trevi teems With not more free or bounteous streams Than did your generous heart. I hoped that this Muse-hallowed day Might find your yearning dream come true: That you might see the moonlight play On ilex and on palace gray As 't were alone for you; -- That your white age might disappear Within the whiteness of the night, While the late strollers, lending ear To your young joy, would halt and cheer At such a happy wight; -- That you, -- whose toil was never done, -- Physicianed by the Land of Rest, Might, like a beggar in the sun, Watch idly the green lizard run From out his stony nest; -- That you, from that high parapet That crowns the graceful Spanish Stairs, (Whose cadence, as to music set, Moving like measured minuet, Would charm your new-world cares), Might see the shrine you helped to save; And yonder blest of cypresses, That proud above your poets wave. Warder of all our song, you gave What loyalty to these! The path to Adonais' bed, That pilgrims ever smoother wear, Who could than you more fitly tread? -- Or with more right from Ariel dead The dark acanthus bear? Alas! your footstep could not keep Your fond hope's rendezvous, brave soul! Yet, if our last thoughts ere we sleep Be couriers across the deep To greet us at the goal, Who knows but now, aloof from ills, The heavenly vision that you see -- The towers on the sapphire hills, The song, the golden light -- fulfils Your dream of Italy! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE HOUSE BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD by SAM WALTER FOSS THE BROOKSIDE by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES MONNA INNOMINATA, A SONNET OF SONNETS: 3 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI PSALM 21. DOMINE IN VIRTUTE by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE NIGHT AFTER NIGHT by GERTRUDE BLOEDE THE DROWNED BOY by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD THE JEWISH PILGRIM by FRANCES BROWNE |