Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Pisa | | Evening | | Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) |
| | Ponte a Mare, Pisa
THE SUN is set; the swallows are asleep; | |
| The bats are flitting fast in the gray air; | |
| The slow soft toads out of damp corners creep; | |
| And evening’s breath, wandering hero and there | |
| Over the quivering surface of the stream, | 5 |
| Wakes not one ripple from its summer dream. | |
| |
| There is no dew on the dry grass to-night, | |
| Nor damp within the shadow of the trees; | |
| The wind is intermitting, dry, and light; | |
| And in the inconstant motion of the breeze | 10 |
| The dust and straws are driven up and down, | |
| And whirled about the pavement of the town. | |
| |
| Within the surface of the fleeting river | |
| The wrinkled image of the city lay, | |
| Immovably unquiet, and forever | 15 |
| It trembles, but it never fades away. * * * * * | |
| The chasm in which the sun has sunk is shut | |
| By darkest barriers of enormous cloud, | |
| Like mountain over mountain huddled, but | |
| Growing and moving upwards in a crowd; | 20 |
| And over it a space of watery blue, | |
| Which the keen evening star is shining through. | | | | |
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