Messina
“Homo sum; humani nil à me alienum puto.”
Why, wedded to the Lord, still yearns my heart
Towards these scenes of ancient heathen fame?
Yet legend hoar, and voice of bard that came
Fixing my restless youth with its sweet art,
And shades of power, and those who bore a part
In the mad deeds that set the world on flame,
So fret my memory here—ah! is it blame?—
That from my eyes the tear is fain to start.
Nay, from no fount impure these drops arise;
’Tis but that sympathy with Adam’s race
When in each brother’s history reads its own.
So let the cliffs and seas of this fair place
Be named man’s tomb and splendid record-stone,
High hope, pride-stain’d, the course without the prize.
Messina. February 9, 1833.