Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes. Italy: Vols. XIXIII. 187679. | | Amalfi | At Amalfi | Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton (18091885) |
| IT is the mid-May sun that, rayless and peacefully gleaming, | |
Out of its nights short prison this blessed of lands is redeeming; | |
It is the fire evoked from the hearts of the citron and orange, | |
So that they hang, like lamps of the day, translucently beaming; | |
It is the veinless water, and air unsoiled by a vapor, | 5 |
Save what, out of the fulness of life, from the valley is steaming; | |
It is the olive that smiles, even he, the sad growth of the moonlight, | |
Over the flowers, whose breasts triple-folded with odors are teeming; | |
Yes, it is these bright births that to me are a shame and an anguish; | |
They are alive and awake,I dream, and know I am dreaming; | 10 |
I cannot bathe my soul in this ocean of passion and beauty, | |
Not one dewdrop is on me of all that about me is streaming; | |
O, I am thirsty for life,I pant for the freshness of nature, | |
Bound in the worlds dead sleep, dried up by its treacherous seeming. | | | |
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