The later poems of John Clare 1837-1864 ... General editor Eric Robinson: Edited by Eric Robinson and David Powell: Associate editor Margaret Grainger |
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[Land of perpetual summer Italy] |
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 | The later poems of John Clare |  |
163
[Land of perpetual summer Italy]
Land of perpetual summer Italy
Land of the golden City of the sun
Cradle of Europes Empire—but for thee
The rest were darkness & perpetual dun
Celestial clime & garden of the sun
Country of Virgil Hessiod—once the free
Latium & Greece both kingdoms of the sun
Their infant cradles rocked by Liberty
& still the sunniest Land is Italy
Land of the golden City of the sun
Cradle of Europes Empire—but for thee
The rest were darkness & perpetual dun
Celestial clime & garden of the sun
Country of Virgil Hessiod—once the free
Latium & Greece both kingdoms of the sun
Their infant cradles rocked by Liberty
& still the sunniest Land is Italy
Greece Land of Homer & the muses fire
How nations read & kindle at thy name
The freemans sword the poets native lyre
Have filled thy history with a classic fame
& is not Greece that Land of Isles the same
The sun shines oer its freedom & wars cease
The despots chains near made it stoop to shame
Its hills & classic sky's repose in peace
& freedom owns it as the soil of Greece
How nations read & kindle at thy name
The freemans sword the poets native lyre
Have filled thy history with a classic fame
& is not Greece that Land of Isles the same
The sun shines oer its freedom & wars cease
The despots chains near made it stoop to shame
Its hills & classic sky's repose in peace
& freedom owns it as the soil of Greece
| The later poems of John Clare | |