Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PANDORA, by BAYARD TAYLOR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PANDORA, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Italy, loved of the sun
Last Line: And girt with the gold of lost lordship thy brow.
Alternate Author Name(s): Taylor, James Bayard
Subject(s): Italy; Pandora (mythology); Italians


ITALY, loved of the sun,
Wooed of the sweet winds and wed by the sea,
When, since the nations begun,
Was other inheritance like unto thee?

Splendors of sunshine and snows
Flash from thy peaks to thy bath in the brine;
Thine are the daisy and rose,
The grace of the palm and the strength of the pine:

Orchard and harvested plain;
Lakes, by the touch of the tempest unstirred;
Dells where the Dryads remain,
And mountains that rise to a music unheard?

Generous gods, at thy birth,
Heaped on thy cradle with prodigal hand
Gifts, and the darling of earth
Art thou, and wast ever, O ravishing land!

Strength from the Thunderer came,
Pride from the goddess that governs his board;
While, in his forges of flame,
Hephaestus attemptered thine armor and sword.

Lo! Aphrodite her zone,
Winning all love to thy loveliness, gave;
Leaving her Paphian throne
To breathe on thy mountains and brighten thy wave.

Bacchus the urns of his wine
Gave, and the festivals crowning thy toil;
Ceres, the mother divine,
Bestowed on thee bounties of corn and of oil.

Phoebus the songs that inspire,
Caught from the airs of Olympus, conferred:
Hermes, the sweetness and fire
That pierce in the charm of the eloquent word.
So were thy graces complete;
Yea, and, though ruined, they fascinate now:
Beautiful still are thy feet,
And girt with the gold of lost lordship thy brow.





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