Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SONNET: TO ITALY, by JOHN CHALK CLARIS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SONNET: TO ITALY, by                    
First Line: When on bleak jura's hills I stood, and saw
Last Line: And stand in majesty and freedom forth!
Alternate Author Name(s): Brooke, Arthur
Subject(s): Italy; Italians


XIII.

WHEN on bleak Jura's hills I stood, and saw,
O Italy, from far those heights sublime
Which curtain thee from every ruder clime,
A feeling of deep love and nameless awe
Wrapped my bowed heart, and mutely did I draw
Reverencing breath: Thy glories in old time,
Thy second spring yet dearer than thy prime,
Such homage claim as by a natural law
From souls which own a sense of all that earth
Can boast of grand and lovely;—but, oh God!
Still must thy consecrated soil be trod
By the polluting hoofs of dullest slaves?
No, open on them with a thousand graves,
And stand in Majesty and Freedom forth!





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