Over all trod my mule with the caution Of gleaners o'er sheaves, Still, foot after foot like a lady— So, round after round, He climbed to the top of Calvano, And God's own profound Was above me, and round me the mountains, And under, the sea, And within me, my heart to bear witness What was and shall be ! Oh heaven, and the terrible crystal! Your eye from the life to be lived In the blue solitudes! Oh, those mountains, their infinite movement ! For, ever some new head and breast of them Thrusts into view To observe the intruder-you see it If quickly you turn And, before they escape you, surprise them— They grudge you should learn How the soft plains they look on, lean over, And love (they pretend) -Cower beneath them; the flat sea-pine crouches. The wild fruit-trees bend, E'en the myrtle-leaves curl, shrink and shut All is silent and grave 'Tis a sensual and timorous beauty— How fair, but a slave! So, I turned to the sea,-and there slumbered As greenly as ever Those isles of the siren, your Galli; No ages can sever The Three, nor enable their sister To join them,-half-way On the voyage, she looked at Ulysses No farther to-day; Tho' the small one, just launched in the wave, Watches breast-high and steady From under the rock, her bold sister Swum half-way already. Fortù, shall we sail there together And see from the sides Quite new rocks show their faces-new haunts Where the siren abides? Shall we sail round and round them, close over The rocks, tho' unseen, That ruffle the gray glassy water To glorious green? Then scramble from splinter to splinter, Reach land and explore, On the largest, the strange square black turret With never a door, Just a loop to admit the quick lizards; Then, stand there and hear The birds' quiet singing, that tells us What life is, so clear! The secret they sang to Ulysses, When, ages ago, He heard and he knew this life's secret, I hear and I know! Ah, see! The sun breaks o'er Calvano He strikes the great gloom And flutters it o'er the mount's summit In airy gold fume! All is over! Look out, see the Our tinker and smith, gypsy, Has arrived, set up bellows and forge, To his hammering, under the wall there, One eye keeps aloof The urchins that itch to be putting His jews'-harps to proof, While the other, thro' locks of curled wire, Is watching how sleek Shines the hog, come to share in the windfalls -An abbot's own cheek! All is over! Wake up And down let us go, and come out now, And see the fine things got in order At Church for the show Of the Sacrament, set forth this evening; To-morrow's the Feast Of the Rosary's Virgin, bv no means Of Virgins the least As you'll hear in the off-hand discourse The Dominican brother, these three weeks, Was getting by heart. Not a post nor a pillar but's dizened With red and blue papers; All the roof waves with ribbons, each altar A-blaze with long tapers; But the great masterpiece is the scaffold All the fiddlers and fifers and drummers, Not afraid of Bellini nor Auber, Who, when the priest's hoarse, Will strike us up something that's brisk And then will the flaxen-wigged Image Be carried in pomp Thro' the plain, while in gallant procession The priests mean to stomp. And all round the glad church lie old bottles With gunpowder stopped, Which will be, when the Image reënters, Religiously popped. And at night from the crest of Calvano Great bonfires will hang, On the plain will the trumpets join chorus, And more poppers bang! At all events, come-to the garden, As far as the wall, See me tap with a hoe on the plaster A scorpion with wide angry nippers! "Such trifles”—you say? Fortù, in my England at home, And debate, if abolishing Corn-laws -If 'tis proper, Scirocco should vanish In black from the skies! THE LOST LEADER. I. JUST for a handful of silver he left us, Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us, They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver, How all our copper had gone for his service! Rags were they purple, his heart had been proud! We that had loved him so, followed him, honoured him, Lived in his mild and magnificent eye, |