ITALY THE PRAISE OF ITALY YET nor the Median groves, nor rivers rolled, Though here no bulls beneath the enchanted yoke No hydra teeth embattled harvest yield, Bathed in thy sacred stream oft led the train, Here Spring perpetual leads the laughing hours, And Winter wears a wreath of Summer flowers; The o'erloaded branch twice fills with fruits the year, And twice the teeming flocks their offspring rear. Yet here no lion breeds, no tiger strays, No tempting aconite the touch betrays, No monstrous snake the uncoiling volume trails, But many a peopled city towers around, What seas defend thee, and what lakes divide? And, thunderbolts of war, each Scipio, thine! |