Felicia Hemans

“ Grey rocks, with foliage richly shadowed o’er;
And sighing winds, that murmur thro' the wood,
Fringing the beach of that Hesperian flood.
Fair is that house of solitude—and fair
The green Maremma, far around it spread,
A sun-bright waste of beauty—yet an air
Of brooding sadness o'er the scene is shed,
No human footstep tracks the lone domain,
The desert of luxuriance glows in vain. ”

“ Have jealous doubts transformed to wrath and hate,
The love whose glow Expression's power surpassed?
Lo! on Pietra's brow a sullen gloom
Is gathering day by day, prophetic of her doom.
Oh! can he meet that eye, of light serene,
Whence the pure spirit looks in radiance forth,
And view that bright intelligence of mien,
Formed to express but thoughts of loftiest worth,
Yet deem that vice within that heart can reign? ”

“ Nello Della Pietra had espoused a lady of noble family at Sienna, named Madonna Pia. Her beauty was the admiration of Tuscany, and excited in the heart of her husband a jealousy, which, exasperated by false reports and groundless suspicions, at length drove him to the desperate resolution of Othello. It is difficult to decide whether the lady was quite innocent, but so Dante represents her. Her husband brought her into the Maremma, which, then as now, was a district destructive to health. He never told his unfortunate wife the reason of her banishment to so dangerous a country. ”

“ With sweetness, born of high and heavenly thought.
And he, to whom are breath'd her vows of faith
Is brave, and noble—Child of high descent,
He hath stood fearless in the ranks of death,
'Mid slaughtered heaps, the warrior's monument:
And proudly marshalled his Carroccio's* [3] way,
Amidst the wildest wreck of war's array. ”