V. The chief's eye flashed; but presently A film the mother-eagle's eye When her bruised eaglet breathes. 'You're wounded!' 'Nay,' the soldier's pride Touched to the quick, he said: 'I'm killed, Sire!' And his chief beside, Smiling the boy fell dead. TWO IN THE CAMPAGNA. I. I wonder do you feel to-day As I have felt since, hand in hand, We sat down on the grass, to stray In spirit better through the land, This morn of Rome and May? II. For me, I touched a thought, I know, III. Help me to hold it! First it left The yellowing fennel, run to seed There, branching from the brickwork's cleft, IV. Where one small orange cup amassed Five beetles,—blind and green they grope, Among the honey-meal: and last, Everywhere on the grassy slope, I traced it. Hold it fast! V. The champaign with its endless fleece VI. Such life here, through such lengths of hours. Such primal naked forms of flowers, VII. How say you? Let us, O my dove, To love or not to love? VIII. I would that you were all to me, IX. I would I could adopt your will, See with your eyes, and set my heart Beating by yours, and drink my fill At your soul's springs,-your part my part In life, for good and ill. X No. I yearn upward, touch you close, Catch your soul's warmth,-I pluck the rose XI. Already how am I so far Out of that minute? Must I go Onward, whenever light winds blow, XII. Just when I seemed about to learn! (1855.) UP AT A VILLA-DOWN IN THE CITY. (As distinguished by an Italian Person of quality.) I. Had I but plenty of money, money enough and to spare, II. Something to see, by Bacchus, something to hear, at least! III. Well now, look at our villa! stuck like the horn of a bull IV. But the city, oh the city-the square with the houses! Why? They are stone-faced, white as a curd, there's something to take the eye! Houses in four straight lines, not a single front awry; You watch who crosses and gossips, who saunters, who hurries by ; Green blinds, as a matter of course, to draw when the sun gets high; And the shops with fanciful signs which are painted properly. V. What of a villa? though winter be over in March by rights, 'Tis May perhaps ere the snow shall have withered well off the heights: You've the brown ploughed land before, where the oxen steam and wheeze, And the hills over-smoked behind by the faint grey olive-trees. VI. Is it better in May, I ask you? You've summer all at once; VII. Is it ever hot in the square? There's a fountain to spout and splash! In the shade it sings and springs; in the shine such foam-bows flash On the horses with curling fish-tails, that prance and paddle and pash Round the lady atop in her conch-fifty gazers do not abash, Though all that she wears is some weeds round her waist in a sort of sash. VIII. All the year long at the villa, nothing to see though you linger, Except yon cypress that points like death's lean lifted forefinger. Some think fireflies pretty, when they mix i' the corn and mingle, Or thrid the stinking hemp till the stalks of it seem a-tingle. Late August or early September, the stunning cicala is shrill, And the bees keep their tiresome whine round the resinous firs on the hill. Enough of the seasons,--I spare you the months of the fever and chill. IX. Ere you open your eyes in the city, the blessed church-bells begin: No sooner the bells leave off than the diligence rattles in: Or the Pulcinello-trumpet breaks up the market beneath. At the post-office such a scene-picture-the new play, piping hot! And a notice how, only this morning, three liberal thieves were shot. Above it, behold the Archbishop's most fatherly of rebukes, Or a sonnet with flowery marge, to the reverend Don So-and-so Having preached us those six Lent-lectures more unctuous than ever he preached.' Noon strikes,-here sweeps the procession! our Lady borne smiling and smart, With a pink gauze gown all spangles, and seven swords stuck in her heart! Bang-whang-whang goes the drum, tootle-te-tootle the fife; X. But bless you, it's dear-it's dear! fowls, wine, at double the rate. They have clapped a new tax upon salt, and what oil pays passing the gate It's a horror to think of. And so, the villa for me, not the city! Beggars can scarcely be choosers: but still-ah, the pity, the pity! Look, two and two go the priests, then the monks with cowls and sandals, And the penitents dressed in white shirts, a-holding the yellow candles; |