Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume VI. Fancy. 1904. | | | | Poems of Sentiment: III. Memory | | Roma | | Giosuè Carducci (1835–1907) |
| | From the Italian by Frank Sewall
From “Poesie”
GIVE to the wind thy locks; all glittering | |
| Thy sea-blue eyes, and thy white bosom bared, | |
| Mount to thy chariot, while in speechless roaring | |
| Terror and Force before thee clear the way! | |
| The shadow of thy helmet, like the flashing | 5 |
| Of brazen star, strikes through the trembling air. | |
| The dust of broken empires, cloud-like rising, | |
| Follows the awful rumbling of thy wheels. | |
| So once, O Rome, beheld the conquered nations | |
| Thy image, object of their ancient dread. | 10 |
| To-day a mitre they would place upon | |
| Thy head, and fold a rosary between | |
| Thy hands. O name! again to terrors old | |
| Awake the tired ages and the world! | | | | |
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