Poems That Every Child Should Know/From Casa Guidi Windows

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65933Poems That Every Child Should Know — From Casa Guidi WindowsMary E. BurtElizabeth Barrett Browning

From Casa Guidi Windows.

JULIET OF NATIONS.

I heard last night a little child go singing
'Neath Casa Guidi windows, by the church,
O bella libertà, O bella!—stringing
The same words still on notes he went in search
So high for, you concluded the upspringing
Of such a nimble bird to sky from perch
Must leave the whole bush in a tremble green,
And that the heart of Italy must beat,
While such a voice had leave to rise serene
'Twixt church and palace of a Florence street:
A little child, too, who not long had been
By mother's finger steadied on his feet,
And still O bella libertà he sang.