Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.
Farewell to Italy
By Anna Brownell Jameson (1794–1860)F
Farewell to the lovely clime,
Where the sunny valleys smile in light,
And the piny mountains climb!
Farewell to her bright blue seas!
Farewell to her fervid skies!
O, many and deep are the thoughts which crowd
On the sinking heart, while it sighs,
“Farewell to the Land of the South!”
Was that bright land to me!
It enchanted my sense, it sank on my heart
Like music’s witchery!
In every kindling pulse
I felt the genial air,
For life is life in that sunny clime,
’T is death of life elsewhere:
Farewell to the Land of the South!
Have hallowed each grove and hill,
And the beautiful forms of ancient Faith
Are lingering round us still.
And the spirits of other days,
Invoked by fancy’s spell,
Are rolled before the kindling thought,
While we breathe our last farewell
To the glorious Land of the South!
Romantic Italy!
Thou land of beauty and love and song,
As once of the brave and free!
Alas for thy golden fields!
Alas for thy classic shore!
Alas for thy orange and myrtle bowers!
I shall never behold them more,—
Farewell to the Land of the South!