THE BRIDGE OF LODI

When of tender mind and body

I was moved by minstrelsy,

And that strain “The Bridge of Lodi”

Brought a strange delight to me.

In the battle-breathing jingle

Of its forward-footing tune

I could see the armies mingle,

And the columns cleft and hewn

On that far-famed spot by Lodi

Where Napoleon clove his way

To his fame, when like a god he

Bent the nations to his sway.

Hence the tune came capering to me

While I traced the Rhone and Po;

Nor could Milan's Marvel woo me

From the spot englamoured so.

And to-day, sunlit and smiling,

Here I stand upon the scene,

With its saffron walls, dun tiling,

And its meads of maiden green,

Even as when the trackway thundered

With the charge of grenadiers,

And the blood of forty hundred

Splashed its parapets and piers...

Any ancient crone I'd toady

Like a lass in young-eyed prime,

Could she tell some tale of Lodi

At that moving mighty time.

So, I ask the wives of Lodi

For traditions of that day;

But alas! not anybody

Seems to know of such a fray.

And they heed but transitory

Marketings in cheese and meat,

Till I judge that Lodi's story

Is extinct in Lodi's street.

Yet while here and there they thrid them

In their zest to sell and buy,

Let me sit me down amid them

And behold those thousands die...

- Not a creature cares in Lodi

How Napoleon swept each arch,

Or where up and downward trod he,

Or for his memorial March!

So that wherefore should I be here,

Watching Adda lip the lea,

When the whole romance to see here

Is the dream I bring with me?

And why sing “The Bridge of Lodi”

As I sit thereon and swing,

When none shows by smile or nod he

Guesses why or what I sing?...

Since all Lodi, low and head ones,

Seem to pass that story by,

It may be the Lodi-bred ones

Rate it truly, and not I.

Once engrossing Bridge of Lodi,

Is thy claim to glory gone?

Must I pipe a palinody,

Or be silent thereupon?

And if here, from strand to steeple,

Be no stone to fame the fight,

Must I say the Lodi people

Are but viewing crime aright?

Nay; I'll sing “The Bridge of Lodi” -

That long-loved, romantic thing,

Though none show by smile or nod he

Guesses why and what I sing!