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Home  »  The Complete Poetical Works by William Wordsworth  »  XI. FROM THE ALBAN HILLS, LOOKING TOWARDS ROME

MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN ITALY, 1837

XI. FROM THE ALBAN HILLS, LOOKING TOWARDS ROME

MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN ITALY, 1837


FORGIVE, illustrious Country! these deep sighs, Heaved less for thy bright plains and hills bestrown With monuments decayed or overthrown, For all that tottering stands or prostrate lies, Than for like scenes in moral vision shown, Ruin perceived for keener sympathies; Faith crushed, yet proud of weeds, her gaudy crown; Virtues laid low, and mouldering energies. Yet why prolong this mournful strain?–Fallen Power, Thy fortunes, twice exalted, might provoke 10 Verse to glad notes prophetic of the hour When thou, uprisen, shalt break thy double yoke, And enter, with prompt aid from the Most High, On the third stage of thy great destiny.