Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.
Val d’ Arno
By Samuel Rogers (1763–1855)(From Italy)
W
The Arno from his birthplace in the clouds,
So near the yellow Tiber’s,—springing up
From his four fountains on the Apennine,
That mountain-ridge a sea-mark to the ships
Sailing on either sea. Downward he runs,
Scattering fresh verdure through the desolate wild,
Down by the City of Hermits, and the woods
That only echo to the choral hymn;
Then through these gardens to the Tuscan Sea,
Reflecting castles, convents, villages,
And those great rivals in an elder day,
Florence and Pisa,—who have given him fame,
Fame everlasting, but who stained so oft
His troubled waters.