Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Reggio (Rhegium) | | Reggio | | John Edmund Reade (1800–1870) |
| | (From Italy)
AND shouldst thou doubt the visible prophecies | |
| Of Nature, in her forms embodying | |
| Imaginative dreams, when the sun lies | |
| On Reggio’s shore, go mark its ruins fling | |
| Their shadows on the stream, till gathering, | 5 |
| Embattled towers rise slowly from the deep, | |
| Pillars and castled walls, gates opening | |
| On serried armies, marshalled horse that leap | |
| Along the flying plains, and charging squadrons sweep. | |
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| And cliffs cloud-capped, deep vales, white herds far seen, | 10 |
| And shepherds with their flocks, and mountains bare, | |
| Looking repose: lo! in the silvery sheen | |
| Floating above the wave, they melt to air, | |
| Reflection but of ruins! woven there | |
| From mist and shadow, but they finger forth | 15 |
| Truths that oracular Nature doth declare | |
| To thee, fallen Italy! regenerate birth | |
| Thus shall be thine from death, freedom and pristine worth. | | | | |
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