"Corsican isle, where his town the Phocæan colonist planted,
Corsica, called by the Greeks Cyrnus in earlier days,
Corsica, less than thy sister Sardinia, longer than Elba,
Corsica, traversed by streams—streams that the fisherman loves,
Corsica, dreadful land! when thy summer's suns are returning,
Scorch'd more cruelly still, when the fierce Sirius shines;
Spare the sad exile—spare, I mean, the hopelessly buried—
Over his living remains, Corsica, light lie thy dust."
The second has been said to be spurious, but I do not see why our heart-broken exile should not have been its author, as well as any of his contemporaries or successors in Corsican banishment.
"Rugged the steeps that enclose the barbarous Corsican island,