PALESTRINA.

I.

It is the hour, when softly round

COLONNA's towers steals waking day,

When pearls of brightest hue are found Before they melt in morning's ray; And Dawn, no more withheld by night, Steals faintly back again her light,

Chased by the effulgence of that beam Which fast o'erwhelms the fitful gleam, Till all its purity and peace

Blends sweetly with the morn's increase. Hush'd are the sounds and anxious hum

Of mortal toils-whose weary sum

In such an hour of tranquil rest

By sweet forgetfulness is blest.
And did we view the souls which sleep,
We could not wish them even awaking
From dreams that well a close might weep,
Although a lovely morn were breaking!

II.

The drowsy sheep and bearded goat
Await the shepherd's early note;

The ox rests on the silent hill,
While mutely plies the gushing rill
Within the grotto, where is seen
The ever-forming Travertine,*

* This is one of the most remarkable objects I met with in the mountains around Tivoli. The stone is formed by the petrifying quality of the waters, which deposit a calcareous crust on vegetable and other substances. The margin of a lake called Lago di Tartaro, has been so much contracted by the gradual deposits of the water, that it is now almost covered by a crust of travertine. The stone thus formed is very durable, and is seen to perfection in

Whose folds fantastically grow

Spontaneous in the streamlet's flow;
In twilight, indistinct and pale,

The slopes mount upward from the vale,
Until their summits, blue and steep,

Are wrapp'd in veils of mist, that creep

To highest peaks, as if to shun

The ardour of the noon-day sun.

GENARO's top has caught the glow

That tints each rock, and leaf, and bough,

And PALESTRINA'S † wooded height

More softly woos the streaming light;

While scenes, which night's dark curtain seal'd

Beneath that radiance, morn reveal'd,

And glittering forms extended wide,

Reposing in the circling tide,

As if from beams redundant grown

Gems were on earth profusely strown!

the large blocks which form the tomb of the Baker Eurysaces, out

side the Porta Maggiore at Rome, on the Via Labicana.

* Monte Genaro, the "Lucretilis " of Horace.

†The "Frigidum Præneste " of Horace.

The startled warblers of the grove

Pour'd mellow strains of peace and love;
Gentle and soft at first they flow'd,

But each on each with accents glow'd,

Till one tumultuous voice of mirth

Awoke to hail the morning's birth!

III.

Sleeps PALESTRINA in this hour

Of loveliness—where she might wing
Her thoughts beyond that silent bower,
By other joys than Earth's to cling?
Rests she unconsciously while morn
Is in such speaking beauty borne?
Impatient-she, perhaps, doth chide

The gleam which hath her slumbers broke,

And vainly for her dreams hath sigh'd

As all her cares with her awoke;

Alone

before the lattice bending

She gazes forth, nor thinks of ending

That watch which she on earth begun

With the first ray of morning sun.

She gazes on the plain below,

But doth not heed the river's flow,

Nor glassy lake, volcano-wrought,

*

Where nature such a charm hath brought,
That even from out Destruction's hands

Her brightest handiwork expands,

And seeks upon its dazzling face

Its author's loveliness to trace
Around in many mingling shades
The desolate Campagnia fades,

And more a wilderness it seems

From that high boundary which teems

With every rarest shrub and flower,
Soft-nourish'd in Italian bower;

While streams from lofty summits glide
To aid the ocean with their tide,

* Almost all the lakes in the mountains in this neighbourhood are the craters of extinct volcanoes. The lake Albano, which is purely volcanic, may be instanced as one of the most magnificent effects of this agency.