Poem in MW, possibly written in 1849 (see L 3.25). The title refers to the Latin maxim ‘De gustibus non est disputandum’, ‘there can be no arguing about tastes’. The addressee loves England; the speaker’s love of *Italy is expressed in more developed form. An English idyll, innocent of politics, is contrasted with Italy’s more extreme landscape and political situation. The English boy and girl and their summer will soon ‘pass’ (10) while the speaker and Italy are ‘lovers old’ (45). His preference, it may be implied, is not a matter of mere ‘tastes’. The Italian girl’s jovial or irreverent description of the King of Naples ‘touched in the liver-wing,/ … with his Bourbon arm in a sling’ (36–7) perhaps mutes the more serious emphasis but also associates Italian political activism with the youthful, the positive.