Literary Gazette, 26th April 1823, Page 268-269
A blue Italian sky,—yet scarce more blue
Than the clear lake beneath,—upon whose breast
Are gliding two or three light boats, with sails
Floating and waving gracefully like clouds.
On the one side are corn and green grass fields,
And olive, groves and vineyards, and one shrine,—
One ruined shrine,—sacred in other days
To some most radiant nymph or starry queen,
Whose sweet divinity was beauty. Near
Is a lone cavern, with its azure fount
Shaded by roses and a laurel tree,
Beneath whose shade might the young painter lean,
And gaze around until his passionate hues
Caught light and life and loveliness. Steep hills
Are on the other side, upon whose heights
Dark Hannibal once rested. Who could dream
That this calm lake was crimson once with blood?
That these green myrtles waved o'er the death-wounds
Of men in their last agony? Oh, War!
How soon thy red fiends can lay desolate
The holy and the beautiful! [1]
- ↑ Signature after last Fragment
