Sonnet on Approaching Italy: ‘Sonnet on Approaching Italy’ is dedicated to Italy, a place that had Oscar Wilde mesmerized. In his poem, too, we find that he is overwhelmed by the beauty of what lay in front of him.
Sonnet on Approaching Italy Poem Wording
I reached the Alps: the soul within me burned,
Italia, my Italia, at thy name:
And when from out the mountain’s heart I came
And saw the land for which my life had yearned,
I laughed as one who some great prize had earned:
And musing on the marvel of thy fame
I watched the day, till marked with wounds of flame
The turquoise sky to burnished gold was turned.
The pine-trees waved as waves a woman’s hair,
And in the orchards every twining spray
Was breaking into flakes of blossoming foam:
But when I knew that far away at Rome
In evil bonds, a second Peter lay,
I wept to see the land so very fair.
TURIN.
Sonnet on Approaching Italy Poetry Review
He praises the scenery and says he watched the day melt into an evening. He laughed when he saw the land that covered the earth. The mountains were beautiful but the surroundings brought to him a sense of joy as if he was beholding something Divine.
Oscar Wilde: Poet
Oscar Wilde uses his metaphors beautifully. He compares the pine leaves with the swaying hair of a woman and describes the orchards.
However, he uses a Biblical allusion to present how mankind can spiritually destroy the beauty of a place that overwhelming. He says that the Peter in Rome saddened him for such a beautiful country was to remain witness to such treachery of the human world.
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