San Terenzo
Andrew Lang
MID April seemed like some November day,
When through the glassy waters, dull as lead,
Our boat, like shadowy barques that bear the dead,
Slipped down the long shores of the Spezian bay,
Rounded a point,—and San Terenzo lay
Before us, that gay village, yellow and red,
The roof that covered Shelley’s homeless head,—
His house, a place deserted, bleak and gray.
The waves broke on the doorstep; fishermen
Cast their long nets, and drew, and cast again.
Deep in the ilex woods we wandered free,
When suddenly the forest glades were stirred
With waving pinions, and a great sea bird
Flew forth, like Shelley’s spirit, to the sea!
Andrew Lang is writing of the the Romantic Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who lived at Villa Magni on the sea front at San Terenzo, a hamlet north of Lerici. Shelley was living in San Terenzo in 1822, when he drowned in a storm while sailing back across the Bay of Spezia towards the Villa.
