23 Appeal to Florence 



O Florence! thou shalt rise again, 

 Thy deeds once more be deeds of men! 

 Such real men the ages know 

 Crowded thy Ponte Vecchio 

 Not stage-struck singers of the day 

 With "endless dirges to decay." 

 Even thy Ghibelline and Guelph 

 Lusted for power and not for pelf. 



IV 



Can Time's revenges farther go! 



From Dante to D'Annunzio! 



By poesy O wondrous trade 



Camp braggarts into heroes made! 



Such "thin red lines of heroes" flow 



Where once trod Fra Girolamo! 



What loftiest cause has fallen lower, 



Down to Giolitti from Cavour? 



To what base uses may we come 



Catspawing to the Bank of Rome! 



To turn away from storied lands 



To wallow in the desert sands 



And filch from sword-gashed Arabs, then, 



The plunder of the Saracen! 



No, Florence, no, this shall not be! 



By thy majestic history, 



By all thy lives of ancient worth, 



By all the fairest forms on earth, 



By all the memories we bear, 



By Casa Guidi's casements rare, 



By all that calls men's souls to thee 



O'er snow-dashed Alp or storm-swept sea! 



Thine was the spirit once which broke 



Age-long obsession, which awoke 



Old warring Europe from its strife 



To thoughts of art, to acts of life. 



Let "Africa's dried leaf" remain; 



To thine own self come back again! 



253 n 



