Nemi

Hark! from dark Nemi's plantain-woods, where twining
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,

It is Gensano's flower-fete! the streets shine
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;
There glows Madonna with her Son, o'erlmng
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.