Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems By the Lady E. Stuart Wortley. In Three Vols |
I, II, III. |
THE BAY OF NAPLES. |
Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems | ||
THE BAY OF NAPLES.
How calm these waters, with their glorious hue,Of skiey, pure, and most transparent blue;
How lovely mid these lovely scenes—a bath
For beauty and her daughters, and a path
For fairy shapes, the gentle green-haired throng,
Who unto Neptune's joyous courts belong!
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Mirror of Nature's mutability!
And yet thou'rt restless in thy fair self too;
I mark the unquiet of the quiv'ring blue,
That seems upon the watchful sense to grow,
E'en as it watcheth—and the rippling flow
Seems to increase and quicken as we gaze,
Redoubling ever in the sunshine's blaze;
Till almost, mid these glorious scenes, thou art,
As 'twere, a moving life—a throbbing heart;
A boon, a blessing, and a beauteous scene,
Thou surely art, and of bright seas the Queen;
A liquid Paradise to those who glide
Dreamily o'er thy blue and heaving tide:
And like a mighty banner, broad and bright,
Unfurled in glory on the admiring sight;
Thou seem'st in rich and wavering sheets to lie,
Obeying still the faint wind's every sigh!
Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems | ||