Mazzini
Giosuè Carducci
(1872)
As from the barren rocks above the sea
A marble giant lone doth Genoa stand.
So rose in dark days he, austere and grand,
Unmoved above a heaving century.
From rocks whence would the child Columbus see
New mountains springing from a wave-washed land,
With Gracchus' heart and Dante's thought expand
Glimmering in heaven the third Italy
He sees, toward her he pressed with fixed eyes,
And forward through a graveyard was his way.
Behind him a dead people on he drew.
To heaven now lifts his face that exile gray
Benign and grave, where ne'er did smile arise
"Ideal," thinks he," thou alone art true."
Guiseppe Mazzini was a politician and journalist who worked for the unification of Italy. He was born in Genoa. Christopher Columbus was also from Genoa.
