Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Byron STANZAS [While Shelley was writing odes to Liberty and to Naples, Byron at Ravenna was preparing to lead the carbonari of the Romagna to battle, and would have done so but for the sudden suppression of the movement in Naples, which eventually led him to die for Greece instead of for Italy. See Introduction, pp. xvii-xviii, above.] WHEN a man hath no freedom to fight for at home, Let him combat for that of his neighbours ; Let him think of the glories of Greece and of Rome, And get knock'd on the head for his labours. To do good to mankind is the chivalrous plan And is always as nobly requited . Then battle for freedom wherever you can, And, if not shot or hanged, you 'll get knighted. Samuel Rogers ITALY [Rogers, travelling in Italy in the 'twenties and 'thirties, saw that freedom was stirring, and foretold that Italy would rise again.] AM I in Italy ? Is this the Mincius ? Are those the distant turrets of Verona ? And shall I sup where Juliet at the Masque Saw her loved Montague, and now sleeps by him ? Such questions hourly do I ask myself; And not a stone, in a cross-way, inscribed ' To Mantua'—' to Ferrara '—but excites Surprise, and doubt, and self-congratulation. O Italy, how beautiful thou art! Yet I could weep—for thou art lying, alas, Low in the dust; and we admire thee now As we admire the beautiful in death. Thine was a dangerous gift, when thou wast born, The gift of beauty. Would thou hadst it not; Or wert as once, awing the caitiffs vile That now beset thee, making thee their slave ! Would they had loved thee less, or feared thee more ! —But why despair ? Twice hast thou lived already, Twice shone among the nations of the world, As the sun shines among the lesser lights Of heaven ; and shalt again. The hour shall come, When t...