Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Mincio, the River | | The Mincio | | 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, | 5 |
| 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, | 10 |
| 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? | | | | |
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