The Poems of Giacomo Leopardi

The morning rain, when, from her coop released, The hen, exulting, flaps her wings, when from The balcony the husbandman looks forth, And when the rising sun his trembling rays...

O Sylvia, dost thou remember still That period of thy mortal life, When beauty so bewildering Shone in thy laughing, glancing eyes, As thou, so merry, yet so wise, Youth’s thres...

These signs and tokens of the ages past Must of necessity their impress leave Upon our brightly dawning age of gold: Because society from Nature still Receives a thousand princi...

Without the lofty counsel of the gods, It surely could not be, that now, When we were never sunk so low, In desperate oblivion of the Past, Each moment, comes a cry renewed, Fro...

Giacomo Leopardi is a great name in Italy among philosophers and poets, but is quite unknown in this country, and Mr. Townsend has the honor of introducing him, in the most capt...

Thou first the day, and thou the shining lights Of the revolving stars didst see, the fields, And their new flocks and herds, O leader old And father of the human family! The wa...

Thy joys to gather, thou sweet thought, Long years of sorrow I endure, And bear of weary life the strain; But not in vain! And I would still return, In spite of all my sad exper...

And back she turned. And, even as she turned, The lightning ceased to flash, the air was dark, The thunder’s voice was hushed, the wind stood still, And all was silent round, an...