Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
France: Vols. IX–X. 1876–79.

Vaucluse

To Vaucluse

By Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374)

FORTUNATE vale! exulting hill, dear plain,

Where morn and eve my soul’s fair idol strayed,

While all your winds that murmured through the glade

Stole her sweet breath; yet, yet, your paths retain

Prints of her step by fount, whose floods remain

In depth unfathomed, mid the rocks that shade,

With caverned arch, their sleep. Ye streams, that played

Around her limbs in summer’s ardent reign,

The soft resplendence of those azure eyes

Tinged ye with living light. The envied claim

These blest distinctions give, my lyre, my sighs,

My songs record, and from their poet’s flame

Bid thy wild vale, its rocks and streams arise,

Associates still of their bright mistress’ fame.