Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Capua | | Capua | | John Nichol (1833–1894) |
| | | | Capua was supposed to take its name from being the caput, or head city, of the southern Etruscan confederacy. |
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FIRST of old of Oscan towns! | |
| Prize of triumphs, pearl of crowns; | |
| Half a thousand years have fled, | |
| Since arose thy royal head, | |
| Splendor of the Lucumoes. | 5 |
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| Tuscan fortress, doomed to feel | |
| Sharpest edge of Samnite steel, | |
| Flashing down the Liris tide; | |
| Re-arisen, in richer pride, | |
| Cynosure of Italy! | 10 |
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| Let the Gaurian echoes say | |
| How, with Rome, we ruled the fray; | |
| Till the fatal field was won | |
| By the chief who slew his son, | |
| ’Neath the vines of Vesulus. | 15 |
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| Siren city, where the plain | |
| Glitters twice with golden grain, | |
| Twice the bowers of roses blow, | |
| Twice the grapes and olives flow, | |
| Thou wilt chain the conqueror; | 20 |
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| Home of war-subduing eyes, | |
| Shining under softest skies, | |
| Gleaming to the silver sea, | |
| Liber, Venus, strive for thee, | |
| Empress of Ausonia! | 25 |
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| Glorious in thy martial bloom, | |
| Glorious still in storm and gloom, | |
| We thy chiefs who dare to die | |
| Raise again thy battle-cry,— | |
| Charge with Capuan chivalry! | 30 | | |
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