Page:Corinne - L. E. L.pdf/3

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By genius Rome subdued the world, then reign'd A queen by liberty. The Roman mind Set its own stamp upon the universe; And, when barbarian hordes whelm'd Italy, Then darkness was entire upon the earth.

Italia reappear’d, and with her rose Treasures divine, brought by the wandering Greeks; To her were then reveal'd the laws of Heaven. Her daring children made discovery Of a new hemisphere: Queen still, she held Thought's sceptre; but that laurel’d sceptre made Ungrateful subjects.

Imagination gave her back the world Which she had lost. Painters and poets shaped Earth and Olympus, and a heaven and hell. Her animating fire by Genius kept, Far better guarded than the Pagan God’s, Found not in Europe a Prometheus To bear it from her.

And wherefore am I at the Capitol? Why should my lowly brow receive the crown Which Petrarch wore? which yet suspended hangs Where Tasso's funeral cypress mournful waves: Why? oh, my countrymen! but that you love Glory so well, that you repay its search Almost like its success.

Now, if you love that glory which too oft Chooses its victims from its vanquishers, Those which itself has crown'd; think, and be proud Of days which saw the perish’d Arts reborn. Your Dante! Homer of the Christian age, The sacred poet of Faith’s mysteries,— Hero of thought,—whose gloomy genius plunged In Styx, and pierced to hell; and whose deep soul Was like the abyss it fathom’d.

Italia! as she was in days of power Revived in Dante: such a spirit stirr'd In old republics: bard and warrior too, He lit the fire of action 'mid the dead, Till e'en his shadows had more vigorous life Than real existence; still were they pursued By earthly memories: passions without aim Gnaw'd at their heart, still fever'd by the past;