Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ON LEAVING ITALY, FOR THE SUMMER, ON ACCOUNT OF HEALTH, by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Thou summer-land! That dost put on the sun Last Line: Or make him one! Alternate Author Name(s): Houghton, 1st Baron; Houghton, Lord Subject(s): Italy; Italians | ||||||||
THOU summer-land! that dost put on the sun Not as a dress of pomp occasional, But as thy natural and most fitting one, -- Yet still thy Beauty has its festival, Its own chief day, And I, though conscious of the bliss begun, Must turn away! I leave thee in thy royalest attire Of affluent life, -- I leave thee 'mid thy wealth Of sunlight gold and jewels of all fire, -- Led by the paltry care of weakened health And fear of pain; Who knows that I shall see, ere I expire, Thy face again! I almost could persuade me that too dear My Northern-island birthdom has been bought, The vantage-ground of intellect, the clear And bright expanse of action and of thought, If I am bound To limit all the good my heart has sought To that cold ground. What is my gain that I can take and mesh The Beautiful in Nature's deepest sea, If I am bound the bondman of the flesh, And must not float upon the surface free? Why should these powers Bring nothing but a burden ever fresh Of yearning hours? Why do we wish the things we do not dare? Why do I tremble at my aestuous Soul That would embrace the burning god, and there Give up into the elemental whole Its worthless frame, Whose instincts guide me captive everywhere, In grief and shame? Oh! what a world of strifes of good and ill Is this that we are cast in? Head and Heart, Body and Spirit, Faculties and Will, Nothing at peace, all sundered and apart; Who would not shun This war, if Death were sure to make him still, Or make him One! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...1851: A MESSAGE TO DENMARK HILL by RICHARD HOWARD TONIGHT THE HEART-SHAPED LEAVES by JAN HELLER LEVI JEWISH GRAVEYARDS, ITALY by PHILIP LEVINE SAILING HOME FROM RAPALLO by ROBERT LOWELL SUNLIGHT AND SHADOW by LISEL MUELLER HOW DUKE VALENTINE CONTRIVED by BASIL BUNTING FRAGMENTS FROM ITALY: 1 by JOHN CIARDI COLUMBUS AND THE MAYFLOWER by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES |
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