Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Amy Levy 1861–89

To Vernon Lee

ON Bellosguardo, when the year was young,

We wandered, seeking for the daffodil

And dark anemone, whose purples fill

The peasant’s plot, between the corn-shoots sprung.

Over the gray, low wall the olive flung

Her deeper grayness; far off, hill on hill

Sloped to the sky, which, pearly-pale and still,

Above the large and luminous landscape hung.

A snowy blackthorn flowered beyond my reach;

You broke a branch and gave it to me there;

I found for you a scarlet blossom rare.

Thereby ran on of Art and Life our speech;

And of the gifts the gods had given to each—

Hope unto you, and unto me Despair.