MUSSOLINI'S PRAISE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 132, 5 June 1937, Page 26

MUSSOLINI'S PRAISE

OF ENGLISH POETS

The members of the Byron and Poetry Societies were received by Signor Mussolnii in the Palazzo Venezia at Rome recently. Brief speeches of thanks for the hospitality shown to them were made by Lord Rennell on behalf of the Byron Society and by Mr. Vandermere Fleming on behalf of the Poetry Society. • In reply, Signer Mussolini said:— "I thank you, Lord Rennell, for your words, and I am very happy indeed, gentlemen, to welcome you in -Rome as the representatives of a long and noble tradition, that has nourished through the centuries the bonds of understanding between the' British and Italian civilisation. If I remember correctly, it was in 1373, at the very dawn of your poetry, that Geoffrey Chaucer came to us—the first British Ambassador to an Italian State, and since then never has there been any English poet who has not come to Italy as' to a source of inspiration—a long stream of pilgrims whose memory is deeply rooted in the heart of our people. Byron, Shelley,- and Keats are three names dear to every Italian as the names of the three great geniuses of Europe in the nineteenth century who. first foresaw the renewal of our civilisation and greatness."