Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.

Messina

Messina

By Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805)

(From The Bride of Messina)
Translated by A. Lodge

YES! pleased, on our land, from his azure way,

The Sun ever smiles with unclouded ray.

But never, fair isle, shall thy sons repose

Mid the sweets which the faithless waves enclose.

On their bosom they wafted the corsair bold

With his dreaded barks to our coast of old.

For thee was thy dower of beauty vain,

’T was the treasure that lured the spoiler’s train.

O, ne’er from these smiling vales shall rise

A sword for our vanquished liberties;

’T is not where the laughing Ceres reigns,

And the jocund lord of the flowery plains:

Where the iron lies hid in the mountain cave

Is the cradle of Empire,—the home of the brave!