Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.
Ravenna
By Lord Byron (1788–1824)(From Don Juan)
S
Of the pine forest, and the silent shore
Which bounds Ravenna’s immemorial wood,
Rooted where once the Adrian wave flowed o’er
To where the last Cæsarean fortress stood,
Evergreen forest; which Boccaccio’s lore
And Dryden’s lay made haunted ground to me,
How have I loved the twilight hour and thee!
Making their summer lives one ceaseless song,
Where the sole echoes, save my steed’s and mine,
And vesper bells that rose the boughs along:
The spectre huntsman of Onesti’s line,
His hell-dogs and their chase, and the fair throng
Which learned from this example not to fly
From a true lover,—shadowed my mind’s eye.