“Who could so watch, and not forget the rack
Of wills worn thin and thought become too frail,
Nor roll the centuries back —
And feel the sinews of his soul grow hale,
And know himself for Rome's inheritor?”

— Vita Sackville-West

"Tuscany" in The Best Poems of 1923 (1924) edited by Thomas Moult

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Vita Sackville-West 39

English writer and gardener 1892–1962

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