University of Virginia Library

ADIEU! THOU GLORIOUS ITALY!

Adieu! thou glorious Italy!—I go
From thy resplendent skies, whose azure glow
Still dazzles with an ever-new delight,
A canopy of coloured glory bright!
My parting course from thee I sorrowing shape,
Land of the orient rose and purple grape!
Fair land of the ivy coil and wall-flower wreath,
That smile where ruins harshly frown beneath!
Land of the laurel and the cypress lorn,
(Where one exults the other still should mourn!)
Adieu to thee and thine! I bear with me,
From thy sweet shores, a world of memory;
Of memory full of bright enchantments still,
That time shall never change, nor sorrows chill.
And yet I leave thee with but little pain;
I go to my sweet native air again.
Bright land of Picture, Sunshine, Melody,
Farewell!—I bear deep memories dear, of thee,
Stamped, strongly stamped, within my very heart,
Not to decline, oh! never to depart!
I bear from thine ambrosial shores with me
A little World of Beauty, and of thee,
That shall for ever bloom within my mind,
Midst all fair thoughts and lovely dreams enshrined.
Farewell! thou land of golden Suns and Skies,
Spread like enchanted realms before the eyes:
Thou Land of Beauty and immortal love,
And, oh! of Heaven beneath and Heaven above;
The soil we tread on, though of different hue,
Seems soft and pure, as yon ethereal blue;
Its growths as beauteous as the Stars that line
That cloudless blue, and there effulgent shine!—
Italia! in thy loveliness supreme,
Thou seem'st more fitted for an after-dream,
E'en than a present vision! for the soul
Surprised by Beauty, scarce takes in the whole:
And 'tis a visionary beauty too,
Which well, creative fancy, shall renew,
And place mid her chief treasures, to outshine
All other dazzling splendours of her mine:
Touched with the tenderest colours of the heart,
Whose hallowed bloom and glow shall ne'er depart.
Farewell! thou glorious Italy, farewell!
No longer must I mid thy glories dwell;
But, oh! for ever shall remember these,
When severed by the mountains and the seas.
I leave thee to thy purple Heavens of pride,
Thine orange-groves, thick-blossomed, deep, and wide;
Thy streams of crystal, and thine incense gales,
Thy soaring mountains, and thy smiling vales.
Farewell, thou loveliest land! for ever fair,
Thou soft enchanted clime,—thou roseate air,—
Thou golden, golden earth,—thou cloudless sky,
Farewell! bright Paradise of Poetry.