It is another country, “through the eyes of a poet”

If you love a little place in the world that may have heavy nostalgia for you, rest assured there are places like Italy that care for such corners, and will not let them be lost and swallowed up by acid rain or pollution dumps.

Italy. That is the place, somewhere in an august time setting, Joseph Addison was sent to. As was the custom in those days, for intellectual youth to do, and to make that cushy, he was granted a Pension of 300 pounds. Of course other places of Europe were on his visiting list, but the long poem, "A letter from Italy" is a record in verse of his tour of the place, along its length and breadth. It is said of him, he surveyed Italy "with the eyes of a poet". He has talked about Rome, Naples, the Tiber, Baia and Umbria. Of San Marino, there is a most amusing passage about it.

There are many sorts of tours (business, holidays, and travel) nowadays. They have themes attached. For instance walk themes – as heritage walks, transpeak walks for health, at one place there are 10 different walks to suit all interests.

Then there are theme parks. For the Sea world is "not just an adventure park its one giant outdoor classroom. To entertain, amaze and educate". There are favorite theme parks. There are heritage centres. A british Cycling museum, castles and gardens, discovery trail, secret wartime museums, otter sanctuary and teeming more.

It is no surprise therefore that many a tourist conducts his own tour, with his point of view. Some may carry with their luggage, a sketchbook, others a camera and some like Joseph A., pen and paper to compose pomes as the place they are visiting inspires them.

Though many tourist resorts in Italy are laced with heavy qualifying adjectives — for instance all along Italy’ s Adriatic coast — Urbino is painted as a medieval town even today; then "stands proudly above the town", Italy’s most beautiful palace "Pesaro" is a stylish seaside resort town.

Grottammare has "golden sandy beach, blue sea, green pines lining the seafront". Most important attribute today about this place is; "tourism – here still has a loveable, personalised character."

About another place it is said, "a place that you can see in a day yet never forget"; it seems that the allure of purity is strictly maintained for these spots which have a high tourism potential.

But Italy is definitely Environs conscious as a whole. It is a signatory to the Kyoto protocol which shows it to be concerned with "environmental current issues" and is with "environmental international agreements". Italy does have problems with deforestation. There is industrial pollution in the valley, in the region of rivers, some coastal areas and indeed Venice.

Although Addison took up residence in other places too like Chelsea, Dublin and Bilton, the one in Italy provides interest of a different flavor.

So if you love a little place in the world, that may have heavy nostalgia for you, rest assured there are places like Italy that care for such corners, and will not let them be lost and swallowed up by acid rain or pollution dumps.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719)

An Account of the Greatest English Poets

(excerpt)

1 Long had our dull forefathers slept supine,

2 Nor felt the raptures of the tuneful Nine;

3 Till Chaucer first, the merry bard, arose,

4 And many a story told in rhyme and prose.

5 But age has rusted what the poet writ,

6 Worn out his language, and obscur’d his wit;

7 In vain he jests in his unpolish’d strain,

8 And tries to make his readers laugh, in vain.

9 Old Spenser next, warm’d with poetic rage,

10 In ancient tales amus’d a barb’rous age;

11 An age that yet uncultivate and rude,

12 Where’er the poet’s fancy led, pursu’d

13 Through pathless fields, and unfrequented floods,

14 To dens of dragons and enchanted woods.

15 But now the mystic tale, that pleas’d of yore,

16 Can charm an understanding age no more;

17 The long-spun allegories fulsome grow.

18 While the dull moral lies too plain below.

19 We view well-pleas’d at distance all the sights

20 Of arms and palfreys, battles, fields, and fights,

21 And damsels in distress, and courteous knights;

22 But when we look too near, the shades decay,

23 And all the pleasing landscape fades away.

24 Great Cowley then (a mighty genius) wrote,

25 O’er-run with wit, and lavish of his thought:

26 His turns too closely on the reader press;

27 He more had pleas’d us, had he pleas’d us less,

28 One glitt’ring thought no sooner strikes our eyes

29 With silent wonder, but new wonders rise;

30 As in the milky-way a shining white

31O’er-flows the heavn’s with one continu’d light,

32 That not a single star can show his rays,

33 Whilst jointly all promote the common blaze.

34 Pardon, great poet, that I dare to name

35 Th’ unnumber’d beauties of thy verse with blame;

36 Thy fault is only wit in its excess,

37 But wit like thine in any shape will please.

38 What muse but thine can equal hints inspire,

39 And fit the deep-mouth’d Pindar to thy lyre;

40 Pindar, whom others, in a labour’d strain

41 And forc’d expression, imitate in vain?

42 Well-pleas’d in thee he soars with new delight,

43 And plays in more unbounded verse, and takes a nobler flight.

*………………………………………………………*

I would like you to note all the stanzas numbered 12, 14, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23; 29, 30, 31, 32, 33. Read them aloud and picture the scenario in your mind’s eye. Did you enjoy?

I would like to reiterate that many poets need nature to convey their ideas. The prettier and more beautiful the environment, the more it needs tactile clarity and purity. What use would a pretty place be if it "doth" stink to high heavens!

So please take care to preserve the beauty of dame Nature and object to its detractors like pollutants and other environment degradation stuff. Otherwise morbidity will abound and sick poetry too and inspiring "pomes" about nature and beauty will be declared extinct by the next millennium! or maybe much much earlier!!

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Sources From -rpo timeline and wikipedia

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Say It If You Want To Save It!

Foggy is a GP and interested in writing poetry and finding solutions for environmental problems.