Page:Carducci - Poems of Italy.djvu/20

 edited various books for the publisher, Barbèra, and eagerly kept "his ears and his heart open to all the voices that seemed to give hope of the speedy liberation of Italy."

These voices during 1859 and 1860 grew ever louder till they swelled into a mighty chant of triumph. The King of Sardinia and Piedmont, Vittorio Emanuele, declared war against Austria with France as his ally. Tuscany threw off the yoke of her Grand Duke and established a provisional government of her own; Parma and Modena followed suit, so did the Papal State of Romagna; finally the plébiscite of March 11, 1860, united all these provinces of Central Italy with Piedmont. In the same year came Garibaldi's triumphant expedition into Sicily and Naples; Southern Italy was added to Northern and Central; the Papal States, except Rome, were conquered; and on February 18, 1861, the first parliament of United Italy met at Turin. All these events live in the poetry of Carducci. "To the Cross of Savoy" ("Alla Croce di Savoia"), "Plébiscitum" ("Plébiscite"), "The Rock of Quarto" ("Scoglio di Quarto"), are examples of a collection that forms a lyric

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