FRIEND, rest awhile upon thy glistening oars, And let us drift and dream Of naught beyond these mountain-bordered shores That in the sunlight gleam! Away, all memory of life's storm and stress, All thought of days to be! Hail, holy calm and sweet forgetfulness, Beloved Italy! In tiny sapphire ripples round us break The wavelets one by one, Upon the bosom of the fairest lake That sees the shining sun. Italian breezes, languorous and low, Around us steal and sigh; From peak to peak, suffused with amber glow, Spans the Italian sky. If paradise there be on earthly shores, Here is its heavenly gleam; Then, friend, rest idly on thy dipping oars And let us drift and dream! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE GHOST OF DEACON BROWN by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON LESSER EPISTLES: TO A YOUNG LADY WITH SOME LAMPREYS by JOHN GAY THE NIGHTINGALE by PHILIP SIDNEY THE WASTE PLACES by JAMES STEPHENS HEATHER ALE: A GALLOWAY LEGEND by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! by WALT WHITMAN THE ISLAND OF THE SCOTS by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN |