Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Tivoli | | Tivoli | | John Edmund Reade (1800–1870) |
| | (From Italy)
AND where breathes Nature deeper oracles | |
| Than in thy depths, romantic Tivoli! | |
| Here, where the spirit of past ages dwells, | |
| Lulled by the waters’ voice of prophecy, | |
| Endiademed with craggy majesty, | 5 |
| And plumed with woods that shed a horror round? | |
| From the deep olive grove lift up thine eye; | |
| Lo, on yon airy cliff’s extremest bound | |
| The Sibyl’s temple reared against the blue profound. * * * * * | |
| Where the wrecked image of the beautiful, | 10 |
| Conscious of faded hues and felt decline, | |
| Looks down an eloquence that doth o’errule | |
| The heart far more than language, though divine | |
| Were he who spake; full swells the flowing line | |
| Of light and delicate proportion there; | 15 |
| Time’s gray tints mellowing that ruined shrine, | |
| Impart a speaking sadness to its air, | |
| A venerable grace that doth his wrongs repair. | | | | |
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