That they may keep my lady prisoner.And yet the wind was howling in the woods,The roving thunder bellowing in the clouds,Before the dawn had risen in the sky.O ye dear clouds! O heaven! O earth! O trees!My lady goes! Have mercy, if on earthUnhappy lovers ever mercy find!Awake, ye whirlwinds! storm-charged clouds, awake,O’erwhelm me with…
Upon me, for an instant, as I pass,In other faces; or in lonely fields,At noon-tide bright, beneath the silent stars,With sudden and with startling vividness,As if awakened by sweet harmony,The splendid vision rises in my soul.How worshipped once, ye gods, what a delightTo me, what torture, too! Nor do I e’erThe odor of the flowery…
When in the Thracian dust uprooted lay,In ruin vast, the strength of Italy,And Fate had doomed Hesperia’s valleys green,And Tiber’s shores,The trampling of barbarian steeds to feel,And from the leafless groves,On which the Northern Bear looks down,Had called the Gothic hordes,That Rome’s proud walls might fall before their swords;Exhausted, wet with brothers’ blood,Alone sat Brutus,…
When beauty so bewilderingShone in thy laughing, glancing eyes,As thou, so merry, yet so wise,Youth’s threshold then wast entering?How did the quiet rooms,And all the paths around,With thy perpetual song resound,As thou didst sit, on woman’s work intent,Abundantly contentWith the vague future, floating on thy mind!Thy custom thus to spend the dayIn that sweet time…
Thy song repeating till the day is done,And through this valley strays the harmony.How Spring rejoices in the fields around,And fills the air with light,So that the heart is melted at the sight!Hark to the bleating flocks, the lowing herds!In sweet content, the other birdsThrough the free sky in emulous circles wheel,In pure enjoyment of…
And how much nobler than effeminate slothAre manhood’s tested energies.Take heed, O generous champion, take heed,If thou thy name by worthy thought or deed,From Time’s all-sweeping current couldst redeem;Take heed, and lift thy heart to high desires!The amphitheatre’s applause, the public voice,Now summon thee to deeds illustrious;Exulting in thy lusty youth.In thee, to-day, thy country…
And greatly have I erred. I fancied lifeA vain and wretched thing, and this, our age,Now passing, vainest, silliest of all.Intolerable seemed, and _was_, such talkUnto the happy race of mortals, if,Indeed, man ought or could be mortal called.‘Twixt anger and surprise, the lofty creatures laughedForth from the fragrant Eden where they dwell;Neglected, or unfortunate,…
The balcony the husbandman looks forth,And when the rising sun his trembling raysDarts through the falling drops, against my roofAnd windows gently beating, wakens me.I rise, and grateful, bless the flying clouds,The cheerful twitter of the early birds,The smiling fields, and the refreshing air.For I of you, unhappy city walls,Enough have seen and known; where…
Italian bold, why wilt thou never ceaseThe fathers from their tombs to summon forth?Why bring them, with this dead age to converse,That stifled is by enemies and by sloth?And why dost thou, voice of our ancestors,That hast so long been mute,Resound so loud and frequent in our ears?Why all these grand discoveries?As in a flash…
Where goest thou? Who callsThee from my dear ones far away?Most lovely maiden, say!Alone, a wanderer, dost thou leaveThy father’s roof so soon?Wilt thou unto its threshold e’er return?Wilt thou make glad one day,Those, who now round thee, weeping, mourn?Fearless thine eye, and spirited thy act;And yet thou, too, art sad.If pleasant or unpleasant be…
