| |
(From Italy)
AT length the day departed, and the moon | |
| Rose like another sun, illumining | |
| Waters and woods and cloud-capt promontories, | |
| Glades for a hermit’s cell, a lady’s bower, | |
| Scenes of Elysium, such as Night alone | 5 |
| Reveals below, nor often,—scenes that fled | |
| As at the waving of a wizard’s wand, | |
| And left behind them, as their parting gift, | |
| A thousand nameless odors. All was still; | |
| And now the nightingale her song poured forth | 10 |
| In such a torrent of heartfelt delight, | |
| So fast it flowed, her tongue so voluble, | |
| As if she thought her hearers would be gone | |
| Ere half was told. ’T was where in the northwest, | |
| Still unassailed and unassailable, | 15 |
| Thy pharos, Genoa, first displayed itself, | |
| Burning in stillness on its craggy seat; | |
| That guiding star so oft the only one, | |
| When those now glowing in the azure vault | |
| Are dark and silent. ’T was where o’er the sea | 20 |
| (For we were now within a cable’s length) | |
| Delicious gardens hung; green galleries, | |
| And marble terraces in many a flight, | |
| And fairy arches flung from cliff to cliff, | |
| Wildering, enchanting; and, above them all, | 25 |
| A palace, such as somewhere in the East, | |
| In Zenastan or Araby the blest, | |
| Among its golden groves and fruits of gold, | |
| And fountains scattering rainbows in the sky, | |
| Rose, when Aladdin rubbed the wondrous lamp; | 30 |
| Such, if not fairer; and, when we shot by, | |
| A scene of revelry, in long array, | |
| As with the radiance of the setting sun, | |
| The windows blazing. But we now approached | |
| A city far-renowned; and wonder ceased. | 35 |
| |
