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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.

Florence

Florence

By Samuel Rogers (1763–1855)

(From Italy)

OF all the fairest cities of the earth

None is so fair as Florence. ’T is a gem

Of purest ray; and what a light broke forth

When it emerged from darkness! Search within,

Without; all is enchantment! ’T is the past

Contending with the present; and in turn

Each has the mastery.
In this chapel wrought

One of the few, Nature’s interpreters,

The few whom genius gives as lights to shine,

Masaccio; and he slumbers underneath.

Wouldst thou behold his monument? Look round!

And know that where we stand stood oft and long,

Oft till the day was gone, Raphael himself;

Nor he alone, so great the ardor there,

Such, while it reigned, the generous rivalry;

He and how many as at once called forth,

Anxious to learn of those who came before,

To steal a spark from their authentic fire,

Theirs who first broke the universal gloom,

Sons of the Morning.
On that ancient seat,

The seat of stone that runs along the wall,

South of the church, east of the belfry-tower,

(Thou canst not miss it,) in the sultry time

Would Dante sit conversing, and with those

Who little thought that in his hand he held

The balance, and assigned at his good pleasure

To each his place in the invisible world,

To some an upper region, some a lower;

Many a transgressor sent to his account,

Long ere in Florence numbered with the dead;

The body still as full of life and stir

At home, abroad; still and as oft inclined

To eat, drink, sleep; still clad as others were,

And at noonday, where men were wont to meet,

Met as continually; when the soul went,

Relinquished to a demon, and by him

(So says the bard, and who can read and doubt?)

Dwelt in and governed.
Sit thee down awhile;

Then, by the gates so marvellously wrought,

That they might serve to be the gates of Heaven,

Enter the Baptistery. That place he loved,

Loved as his own; and in his visits there

Well might he take delight! For when a child,

Playing, as many are wont, with venturous feet

Near and yet nearer to the sacred font,

Slipped and fell in, he flew and rescued him,

Flew with an energy, a violence,

That broke the marble,—a mishap ascribed

To evil motives; his, alas, to lead

A life of trouble, and erelong to leave

All things most dear to him, erelong to know

How salt another’s bread is, and the toil

Of going up and down another’s stairs.


Nor then forget that chamber of the dead,

Where the gigantic shapes of night and day,

Turned into stone, rest everlastingly;

Yet still are breathing, and shed round at noon

A twofold influence,—only to be felt,—

A light, a darkness, mingling each with each;

Both and yet neither. There, from age to age,

Two ghosts are sitting on their sepulchres.

That is the Duke Lorenzo. Mark him well.

He meditates, his head upon his hand.

What from beneath his helm-like bonnet scowls?

Is it a face, or but an eyeless skull?

’T is lost in shade; yet, like the basilisk,

It fascinates, and is intolerable.

His mien is noble, most majestical!

Then most so, when the distant choir is heard

At morn or eve,—nor fail thou to attend

On that thrice-hallowed day, when all are there;

When all, propitiating with solemn songs,

Visit the dead. Then wilt thou feel his power!


But let not sculpture, painting, poesy,

Or they, the masters of these mighty spells,

Detain us. Our first homage is to virtue.

Where, in what dungeon of the citadel,

(It must be known,—the writing on the wall

Cannot be gone,—’t was with the blade cut in,

Ere, on his knees to God, he slew himself,)

Did he, the last, the noblest citizen,

Breathe out his soul, lest in the torturing hour

He might accuse the guiltless?
That debt paid,

But with a sigh, a tear for human frailty,

We may return, and once more give a loose

To the delighted spirit,—worshipping,

In her small temple of rich workmanship,

Venus herself, who, when she left the skies,

Came hither.