Читать книгу Lamia's Winter-Quarters (Alfred Austin) - with the original illustrations - (Literary Thoughts Edition) онлайн

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And lances were lifted and pikemen gone.

IV

Yes, ever and ever till you, my Queen,

Came over the sea that is all your own,

When the tear on the tip of the vine is seen,

And the fig-tree cressets have flamed to green,

And windflower wakened, and tulip blown.

V

Then roses were showered before your feet,

And her lily-crowned gonfalons waved above,

And children chanted in square and street,

‘All hail to the Monarch may free men greet,

Whose sceptre is Peace, and whose Throne is Love.’

VI

And now that each snow-torrent foams and falls,

And the oreoles sing and the skylarks soar,

And the lithe swallow circles her rose-white walls,

Through the clefts of the Apennine Florence calls,

‘More welcome than Spring,’ come back once more!

VII

‘Come back, for the cuckoo is on its way,

And the mountains, smiling, await your smile;

And still in my olive-groves bask and stray,

Till the warm-winged waters and winds of May

Shall waft you back to your own loved Isle.’

I Cedri,

Pian di Ripoli, Florence,

Lady-Day, 1898.