“Lago di Como” [poem]
Lago di Como
It was a little peaceful bay
1
Beneath the precipices grey 2
Lay deep, and blue, and calm, but clear,
As is the sapphire, and you saw
The precipices sharp and sheer
And the white clouds careering war
And the blue sky and the high hills
Neath the cold waters as
Seemed fed by thousand mountain rills
Flowed upward from the crystal depth
And all along that quiet bay a
A range of little shipping lay
With their red flags drooped downward right
And sheltered by their awnings white
From the high suns red scorching look
That oer the living waters shook
A blaze of hot, and swarthy glow
When we had launched from below
The shade of the tall cliffs, and came
Where Como rolled his breast of flame
Down southward winding far away
The olives tints of gentle gray
Stooped to his borders from between
The hills uncultivated green
And orange groves him girded round
Blossoming oer him fragrantly
And in the sleep of his profound
White villages shone silently b
And from our prow the ripples flash
Threw forth its little sparkles paly
The light sound of the oars dash
Came dancing oer the waters gaily
There was blue above, and blue below
And the gleam of the eternal snow
Forth from the fastnesses it came
Of the high alps retiring th chain c
And all along the shored whereer,
The stormwinds wont to chafe the wave
That Christ may hear the passioned prayer
May hear, may listen
Beneath the precipices grey 2
Lay deep, and blue, and calm, but clear,
Ruskin's line number
825As is the sapphire, and you saw
The precipices sharp and sheer
System generated line number
5And the white clouds careering war
And the blue sky and the high hills
Neath the cold waters as
where
they slept
Ruskin's line number
830Seemed fed by thousand mountain rills
Flowed upward from the crystal depth
System generated line number
10And all along that quiet bay a
A range of little shipping lay
With their red flags drooped downward right
Ruskin's line number
835And sheltered by their awnings white
From the high suns red scorching look
System generated line number
15That oer the living waters shook
A blaze of hot, and swarthy glow
When we had launched from below
Ruskin's line number
840The shade of the tall cliffs, and came
Where Como rolled his breast of flame
System generated line number
20Down southward winding far away
The olives tints of gentle gray
64
Stooped to his borders from between
Ruskin's line number
845The hills uncultivated green
And orange groves him girded round
System generated line number
25Blossoming oer him fragrantly
And in the sleep of his profound
White villages shone silently b
Ruskin's line number
850And from our prow the ripples flash
Threw forth its little sparkles paly
System generated line number
30The light sound of the oars dash
Came dancing oer the waters gaily
There was blue above, and blue below
Ruskin's line number
855And the gleam of the eternal snow
Forth from the fastnesses it came
System generated line number
35Of the high alps retiring th chain c
And all along the shored whereer,
The stormwinds wont to chafe the wave
Ruskin's line number
860The
A
crucif crucifix is shrined thereThat Christ may hear the passioned prayer
System generated line number
40May hear, may listen
pity
, and may save