Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Ferrara | | Tasso’s Dungeon | | Richard Chenevix Trench (1807–1886) |
| | | HOW might the goaded sufferer in this cell, | |
| With nothing upon which his eyes might fall, | |
| Except this vacant court, that dreary wall,— | |
| How might he live? I asked. Here doomed to dwell, | |
| I marvel how at all he could repel | 5 |
| Thoughts which to madness and despair would call. | |
| Enter this vault; the bare sight will appall | |
| Thy spirit, even as mine within me fell, | |
| Until I learned that wall not always there | |
| Had stood,—’t was something that this iron grate | 10 |
| Had once looked out upon a garden fair. | |
| There must have been then here, to calm his brain, | |
| Green leaves, and flowers, and sunshine;—and a weight | |
| Fell from me, and my heart revived again. | | | | |
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