Poems and Transcripts :: :: University of Virginia Library

'Tis sweet in early summer, at the close
Of a long dreamy afternoon, to stand
Upon the lower slope of Apennine,
Above Æmilia's capital, and look
On to the plain of northern Italy.
Below is stretched the many-towered town,
A world of brown tile roofs, from which, confused,
A hum of life uprises and a sound
Of many bells; the boundless plain, which is
At first a maze of gardens, villas, walls,
Of fields of corn and hemp crossed and recrossed
By lanes of green acacia and of elm,
Becomes a bluish Lombardy immense,
With here and there a whitish patch which may
Be Modena or Reggio, or aught else.
And so it keeps until the set of sun,
When, letting fancy play, we might suppose
That the great Painter of the Universe
Displays his palette to the eyes of all;
A skyey palette, on whose western edge
Are spread, at random, all the brilliant hues

Requiréd for the morrow's work; required
To paint the fruits and flowers of the world,
The fields, the meads, the woods, the lakes, the hills,
And the broad ocean. There are long bright streaks
Of crimson on a golden ground, and green
And crocus, saffron, orange, pearl, and tints
Purpureal, fitted for some brighter world
Than this of ours; and through the whole there shines
A wondrous light, transcendent, which divides
In fan-like rays. But it is well to turn
Away before the earth and sky relapse
Into the tintless twilight, and the hour
Brings something like a sadness to the heart.

II. ON THE ALPS.

Say, have ye stood at eve in Chamonix,
And watched the boundless slopes of snow and ice
That midway hang between the earth and heaven,
Lit up and bathed with crimson by the sun,
When to itself the mountain seems to take
All that there is of colour in the world?
Then, when the transient flush has reached its height.
And for a moment in its glory stood,
It quickly fades into a paler pink,
Which next becomes a dove colour that wanes
Into a grey. And then the chill of death
Appears to pass upon the giant mass
That cold and dull and unsubstantial stands,
And mingles in the twilight with the sky.