Travelling Sketches in Rhyme :: :: University of Virginia Library

Travelling Sketches in Rhyme

By Lady E. S. Wortley

Stuart-Wortley, Emmeline (1806-1855)

[dedication]

A SUNSET SCENE BETWEEN AUXERRE AND AVALON.

VINE-COVERED HILLS IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE.

ON THE FIRST SIGHT OF THE MEDITERRANEAN.

A SCENE NEAR NICE.

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE CORNICHE.

THE CAMPO SANTO, AT PISA.

Collapse All | Expand All expand section

ON THE FIRST SIGHT OF THE MEDITERRANEAN.

1

Oh! Mediterranean Sea!—oh! thou Mediterranean Sea!
It is well with me that at last I look on thy loveliness and on thee.
Oh! how placidly pure, and how beamingly bright do thy glittering waters seem,
Like an hundred rivers of sapphire and gold, met together in some rich dream.

2

Now hail to thy brightness—and hail to thy calm and thy heavenly heavenly hue,
Oh! Glorious Mediterranean Sea, so beautiful and so blue.

And hail to the fertile and flowery pride of thy winding and verdant shore,
For never did Scene of Enchantments so rife—greet and gladden my senses before.

3

Oh! Mediterranean Sea!—Oh! thou Mediterranean Sea!
It is well with me thus, on thy golden shore—on thy borders of beauty to be;
Where gracefully spread the olive-trees into many a shadowing bower,
And haughtily with their crested heads, the ambitious stone-pines tower.

4

Oh! thou Mediterranean Sea serene! Oh! thou Mediterranean Sea!
'Tis gently and lightly the breezes blow o'er thy dimpled glass in their glee,

'Tis a feast of sunshine makes ever glad thy surface and thy fair shore;
Roll, roll, and rejoice! breathe music, flash light,— for ever and evermore.