MELISSA

S’io credesse che mia risposta fosseA persona che mai tornasse al mondo,Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.Ma percioche giammai di questo fondoNon torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo. Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with o

The sun is warm, the sky is clear,          The waves are dancing fast and bright,       Blue isles and snowy mountains wear       The purple noon's transparent might,          The breath of the moist earth is light,       Around its unexpanded buds;          Like many a voice of one delight,       The winds, the birds, the ocean floods, The City's voice itself, is soft like Solitude's.          I see the Deep's untrampled floor          With green and purple seaweeds strown;

When chill November's surly blast  Made fields and forests bare,  One ev'ning, as I wander'd forth  Along the banks of Ayr,  I spied a man, whose aged step  Seem'd weary, worn with care;  His face was furrow'd o'er with years,  And hoary was his hair.  "Young stranger, whither wand'rest thou?"  Began the rev'rend sage;  "Does thirst of wealth thy step constrain,  Or youthful pleasure's rage?  Or haply, prest with cares and woes,  Too soon thou hast began  To wander forth, wit