by Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

Sonnet on approaching Italy
Language: English 
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.

Confirmed with Oscar Wilde, Poems, edited by Robert Ross, London: Metheun & Co. Ltd., 1913, page 40.

Note for lines 12 and 13: "But when I knew that far away at Rome / In evil bonds a second Peter lay," is likely a reference to Pope Pius IX, who described himself as a "prisoner in the Vatican" after the capture of Rome by the Royal Italian Army in 1870, which ended the Pope's temporal rule of Rome and the Papal States. A young Wilde traveled to Italy for the first time not long after and was reported to have had an impactful audience with Pius in 1877. Wilde was attracted to Catholicism early in life (and again in the years before his death) and was likely sympathetic to Pius' political plight and spiritual stand even before their meeting, as this sonnet suggests.

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Researcher for this page: Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2025-08-27
Line count: 14
Word count: 117