Poem by Richard Monckton Milnes

On a Scene in Tuscany

What good were it to dim the pleasure--glow,
That lights thy cheek, fair Girl, in scenes like these,
By shameful facts, and piteous histories?
While we enjoy, what matters what we know?
What tender love--sick looks on us below
Those Mountains cast! how courteously the Trees
Raise up their branching heads in calices
For the thick Vine to fill and overflow!
This nature is like Thee, all--bright, all--mild;
If then some self--wise man should say, that here
Hate, sin, and death held rule for many a year,
That of this kindliest earth there's not a rood
But has been saturate with brother's blood,--
Believe him not, believe him not, my Child. 

1. Written at Mycenae
2. Crimean Invalid Soldiers Reaping at Aldershot
3. One Moment More before That Fatal Leap!
4. The Subterranean River, At Cong
5. Meditative Fragments, on Venice

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