Felicia Hemans in The New Monthly Magazine Volume 40 1834/Alessandro Pegolotti

by Alessandro Pegolotti

For other versions of this work, see Quella, ch' ambi le mani entro la chioma.

The New Monthly Magazine, Volume 40, Page 445

IV.
Alessandro Pegolotti.

Quella, ch' ambi le mani entro la chioma, &c.

She that cast down the empires of the world,
    And, in her proud triumphal course through Rome,
Dragged them, from freedom and dominion hurled,
    Bound by the hair—pale, humbled, and o'ercome!

I see her now, dismantled of her state,—
    Spoiled of her sceptre,—crouching to the ground,
Beneath a hostile car; and lo! the weight
    Of fetters her imperial neck around!

Oh! that a stranger's envious hand had wrought
    This desolation! for I then would say,
"Vengeance, Italia!"—in the burning thought
    Losing my grief;— but 'tis the ignoble sway
Of vice hath bowed thee! Discord, slothful ease,—
Theirs is that victor-car!—thy tyrant lords are these!