Fragment: To Italy
As the sunrise to the night, As the north wind to the clouds, As the earthquake's fiery flight, Ruining mountain solitudes, Everlasting Italy, Be those hopes and fears on thee.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
As the sunrise to the night, As the north wind to the clouds, As the earthquake's fiery flight, Ruining mountain solitudes, Everlasting Italy, Be those hopes and fears on thee.
Italy is spoken to directly, as if the country itself could hear. Shelley uses three quick, elemental images—day breaking over darkness, a sharp wind scattering clouds, an earthquake tearing through mountain stillness—to set up a pattern.
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