Sent to 'The Philological Circle' of Florence for its <br />meeting in commemoration of Dante, January 27, 1881, <br />the anniversary of his first condemnation. <br /> <br />PROUD of her clustering spires, her new-built towers, <br />Our Venice, stolen from the slumbering sea, <br />A sister's kindliest greeting wafts to thee, <br />Rose of Val d' Arno, queen of all its flowers! <br />Thine exile's shrine thy sorrowing love embowers, <br />Yet none with truer homage bends the knee, <br />Or stronger pledge of fealty brings, than we, <br />Whose poets make thy dead Immortal ours. <br />Lonely the height, but ah, to heaven how near! <br />Dante, whence flowed that solemn verse of thine <br />Like the stern river from its Apennine <br />Whose name the far-off Scythian thrilled with fear: <br />Now to all lands thy deep-toned voice is dear, <br />And every language knows the Song Divine!<br /><br />Oliver Wendell Holmes<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/boston-to-florence/
