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

Mincio, the River

The Mincio

By Angelo di Costanzo (1507–1591)

Translated by Capel Lofft

YE happy swans, who by the banks and streams

Of the blest Mincio have your lot assigned,

Tell me, if true, what by report we find,

That Virgil in your haunts felt day’s first beam?

Tell, if with thee his high, poetic dream,

Fair Siren, hovered o’er his raptured mind;

So may thine ashes no disturbance find;

Rests he with thee entombed, of every age the theme?

What nobler grace from fortune could he have,

What end more suited to a dawn so fair,

What cradle more congenial to his grave,

Than to be born in your melodious air,

Ye snowy swans, and see the Sirens lave

The dust with tears which his loved relics bare?