Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.
Nemi
By John Edmund Reade (1800–1870)H
The tendrilled vine the branches clasps along,
Where glows through olives the bright cactus shining,
Echo the sounds of laughter and of song!
Lo, trooping forth, wild-flowers their hair among,
Albano’s dark-browed daughters! from their eyes
Joy flashing lightning, a Bacchante throng:
Forms such as danced beneath Idalian skies,
Or trod the flowery fields of golden Arcadies.
Strewn o’er with irises of living blue,
Galaxied thick with star-eyed jessamine,
And the rose shedding its rich lustre through:
We tread on living tapestry whose hue
Mocks the faint rainbow, an Hesperian shore
Its glory darkening on the aching view:
Yet hath Art wrought on that mosaic floor
Religion’s pictured forms that call ye to adore;
Their brows with lilies: hark! song fills the air,
Winged infants lead the choir with censers swung:
Shedding flower-odors from their raven hair,
With white veils floating from their shoulders bare,
Frascati’s daughters elevate above
The sacred Host: Religion watches there,
Her spirit still with olden fable wove,
Wedding great Nature thus, bride-like, with human love.