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| O LONG desired by many a weary age, | |
| Besought in prayer by many a martyred sage! | |
| While earth with pride thy footsteps doth upbear,— | |
| Thy country’s hope, for thou know’st not despair,— | |
| Italia’s true deliverer! soon thy star, | 5 |
| Though dimmed by Northern clouds, shall shine afar! | |
| The tyrant priest, a Roman but in name, | |
| Who now exults and glories in the shame | |
| His country bears, may yet give place to thee, | |
| To purer worship and to liberty; | 10 |
| And Gauls, who seek thy land to re-enslave, | |
| May find its soil, as oft before, their grave. | |
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| Three empires, O Italia, thou hast swayed: | |
| First, when thy Cæsar’s laws the world obeyed; | |
| And next, when, trembling at his proud command, | 15 |
| Monarchs obeyed imperious Hildebrand; | |
| Last, when thy genius lit her torch again, | |
| And won dominion o’er the minds of men. | |
| These lost, men deemed thee sunk in slow decay, | |
| And thought thy greatness wholly passed away; | 20 |
| But, soon or late, Time hath in store for thee— | |
| Land of the Adrian and Tyrrhenian sea, | |
| Crowned by the Alps, and ribbed by Apennine— | |
| A brighter age than ever yet was thine! | |
| |
| While burns the light that shone o’er all the West, | 25 |
| Rekindled, first, at Petrarch’s high behest; | |
| While Freedom lives, that, rising from her tomb, | |
| Resumed her ancient life and power and bloom | |
| On that great day when ebbed the Northern tide, | |
| And Lombard cities broke the German’s pride,— | 30 |
| Land of Columbus, fairest Italy, | |
| Columbia’s eyes shall still be turned on thee! | |
| Still will we trust that Dante’s prophet soul, | |
| And, bright with fame, the innumerable roll | |
| Of thine immortal dead, (e’en such as rest, | 35 |
| O Santa Croce, on thy sacred breast!)— | |
| Foretokened, in thy night, the dawning day, | |
| When, like a dream, thy foes shall pass away. | |
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| Can nation-building Cavour’s work be lost? | |
| No! though by devious paths thy way be crost, | 40 |
| Italia! thou shalt yet attain the prize | |
| Of honored peace, that clear before thee lies! | |
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