Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Sicily | | Sicily | | Samuel Greene Wheeler Benjamin (1837–1914) |
| | | A PLEASANT land looms up against the sky: | |
| Green hills and slopes, bright with perennial spring, | |
| And domes and airy spires, faint glittering | |
| Through their light wreaths of sea-mist, greet the eye, | |
| While, floating wildly o’er the deep-blue sea, | 5 |
| The boatman’s music lulls the enchanted ear. | |
| Sicilia’s island this, the sister fair | |
| Who sweetly smiles on vine-clad Italy: | |
| Alike the sharer of her sons of song, | |
| Her black-eyed maids, her heroes, and her arts; | 10 |
| And drunk alike with blood of patriot hearts, | |
| She rises, phœnix-like, from tyrants’ wrong, | |
| And asks thee, traveller, if thy wandering e’en | |
| Have ever gazed upon a lovelier scene. | | | | |
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