True Is It That Ambrosio Salinero

Published 1837

True is it that Ambrosio Salinero With an untoward fate was long involved In odious litigation; and full long, Fate harder still! had he to endure assaults Of racking malady. And true it is That not the less a frank courageous heart And buoyant spirit triumphed over pain; And he was strong to follow in the steps Of the fair Muses. Not a covert path Leads to the dear Parnassian forest's shade, That might from him be hidden; not a track Mounts to pellucid Hippocrene, but he Had traced its windings.--This Savona knows, Yet no sepulchral honours to her Son She paid, for in our age the heart is ruled Only by gold. And now a simple stone Inscribed with this memorial here is raised By his bereft, his lonely, Chiabrera. Think not, O Passenger! who read'st the lines That an exceeding love hath dazzled me; No--he was One whose memory ought to spread Where'er Permessus bears an honoured name, And live as long as its pure stream shall flow.[A]