V
SAN CARLO BORROMEO AT ARONA
A troubled image the great Statue threw
Down on the waters blue,
Where round the lake gray watchful mountains go,
Frowning beneath the clouds,
And angry summits of eternal snow.
There those who from Arona take their way
To Belgirate's bay,
Dark o'er the long sweet slopes of vernal green
Behold that Image set,
High witness how th' unseen transcends the seen.
She too, the Blesséd one, whose golden smile
Lights up Arona's aisle,
Repeats the message, brought her from above,
In thrice-inspired art,
And that pure master-piece of tender love.
The colossal statue of San
Carlo stands upon a hill close to Arona on the Lago Maggiore. Within
The Church of S. Maria degli Angeli is the lovely picture of the Nativity,
by Gaudenzio Ferrari, here alluded to.
—But round the green hill, and the height, where he,
Teaching mankind to see
Their one true God, stands silent evermore,
The full-voiced nightingale
Thrills the same eloquent song he sang of yore.
So, Mother!—when thy feet, from earthly tread
Long sever'd, here were led,
In his due time of joy he sang: And I
See the same scene as thou,
With eyes not dimm'd by tears alone,—and sigh:
Foreseeing that inevitable gloom
Which wraps the nearing tomb;
Whilst thou, great Saint, above me calm dost stand,
Urging the way to God,
With that mute eloquence, and imploring hand.
—Ah Saint, and Mother! Saints together, now
Ye wait the sign to bow
Before the throne, in final, fullest peace;
And cry on those ye love,
Captives of earth, to share the great release.
Baveno; 24 May, 1885
