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University of Virginia Library

The Poetical Works of Aubrey De Vere

De Vere, Aubrey (1814-1902)

I.

VOL. I. THE SEARCH AFTER PROSERPINE

II.

III.

IV.

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V.

“THE IRISH SISTERS.”

SONNETS BY THE LATE HON STEPHEN E. SPRING RICE.

POEMS FOR THE MOST PART CONNECTED WITH THE GREAT IRISH FAMINE, 1846—1849.

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SAINT PETER'S CHAINS;

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I.

PART I. The Revolt against Christian Civilization.

I.

I. CHRISTMAS EVE, 1859.

II.

II. ITALIAN ‘UNIFICATION’ IN 1860.

III.

III. GREAT CONNIVING POWERS.

IV.

IV. THE RETRIBUTION.

V.

V. JUVENILE PATRIOTISM.

VI.

VI. THE ORIGIN OF THE TEMPORAL POWER.

VII.

VII. THE OLD AND NEW BARBARIANS.

VIII.

VIII. TO ITALY, 1861.

IX.

IX. THE ITALY OF OLD.

X.

X. THE INVASION OF THE PAPAL STATES.

XI.

XII.

XII. TRUE AND FALSE LOVE OF FREEDOM.

XIII.

XIII. THE APPROACHING DEED.

XIV.

XIV. THE CONSUMMATION.

II.

III.

VI.

VOL. VI. LEGENDS AND RECORDS OF THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE

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413

VIII. TO ITALY, 1861.

All-radiant region! would that thou wert free!
Free 'mid thine Alpine realm of cloud and pine
Free 'mid the rich vales of thine Apennine
Free to the Adrian and the Tyrrhene Sea!
God with a twofold freedom franchise thee!
Freedom from alien bonds, so often thine,
Freedom from Gentile hopes—death-fires that shine
O'er the foul grave of Pagan liberty
With Pagan empire side by side interred;
Then round the fixed throne of their Roman Sire
Thy sister States should hang, a Pleiad choir
With saintly beam unblunted and unblurred,
A splendour to the Christian splendour clinging,
A lyre star-strung ever the ‘new song’ singing!