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

Syracuse

Syracuse

By Virgil (70–19 B.C.)

(From Æneid, Book III)
Translated by C. P. Cranch

STRETCHING in front of the Sicanian bay

And opposite wave-washed Plemmyrium, lies

An isle, to which the ancients gave the name

Ortygia. Hither, so the legends say,

Alpheus, Elis’ river, underneath

The ocean found a secret way, and now

Mingles with Arethusa’s stream, and flows

With the Sicilian waves.