<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Italy in Arms</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Of</span> all my dreams by night and day,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">One dream will evermore return,</p><p class="line">The dream of Italy in May;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">The sky a brimming azure urn</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Where lights of amber brood and burn;</p><p class="line">The doves about San Marco's square,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">The swimming Campanile tower,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">The giants, hammering out the hour,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:9%">The palaces, the bright lagoons,</p><p class="line">The gondolas gliding here and there</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:9%">Upon the tide that sways and swoons.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The domes of San Antonio,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Where Padua 'mid her mulberry-trees</p><p class="line">Reclines; Adige's crescent flow</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Beneath Verona's balconies;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Rich Florence of the Medicis;</p><p class="line">Sienna's starlike streets that climb</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">From hill to hill; Assisi well</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Remembering the holy spell</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:9%">Of rapt St. Francis; with her crown</p><p class="line">Of battlements, embossed by time,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:9%">Stern old Perugia looking down.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Then, mother of great empires, Rome,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">City of the majestic past,</p><p class="line">That o'er far leagues of alien foam</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">The shadows of her eagles cast,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Imperious still; impending, vast,</p><p class="line">The Colosseum's curving line;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Pillar and arch and colonnade;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">St. Peter's consecrated shade,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:9%">And Hadrian's tomb where Tiber strays;</p><p class="line">The ruins on the Palatine</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:9%">With all their memories of dead days.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And Naples, with her sapphire arc</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Of bay, her perfect sweep of shore;</p><p class="line">Above her, like a demon stark,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">The dark fire-mountain evermore</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Looming portentous, as of yore;</p><p class="line">Fair Capri with her cliffs and caves;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Salerno drowsing 'mid her vines</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">And olives, and the shattered shrines</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:9%">Of Pæstum where the gray ghosts tread,</p><p class="line">And where the wilding rose still waves</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:9%">As when by Greek girls garlanded.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">But hark! What sound the ear dismays,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Mine Italy, mine Italy?</p><p class="line">Thou that wert wrapt in peace, the haze</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Of loveliness spread over thee!</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Yet since the grapple needs must be,</p><p class="line">I who have wandered in the night</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">With Dante, Petrarch's Laura known,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Seen Vallombrosa's groves breeze-blown,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:9%">Met Angelo and Raffael,</p><p class="line">Against iconoclastic might</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:9%">In this grim hour must wish thee well!</p></div><p class="byline">Clinton Scollard</p></body></html> · Great War