Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.
The Ascent of the Apennines
By Sir Aubrey de Vere (1788–1846)T
The ilex and chestnut are left behind:
The skirts of the billowy pinewoods kindle
In the evening lights and the wind.
Not here we sigh for the Alpine glory
Of peak primeval and death-pale snow:
Not here for the cold green, and glacier hoary,
Or the blue caves that yawn below.
The landscape here is mature and mellow;
Fruit-like, not flower-like;—long hills embrowned;
Gradations of violet purple and yellow
From flushed stream to ridge church-crowned:
’T is a region of mystery, hushed and sainted:
As still as the dreams of those artists old
When the thoughts of Dante his Giotto painted:—
The summit is reached! Behold!
Like a sky condensed lies the lake far down;
It curves like the orbit of some fair planet!
A fire-wreath falls on the cliffs that frown
Above it,—dark walls of granite!
Thick-set, like an almond tree newly budded,
The hillsides with homesteads and hamlets glow:
With convent towers are the red rocks studded,
With villages zoned below.
Down drops by the island’s woody shores
The bannered barge with its rhythmic oars.