Song of the wave / George Cabot Lodge [electronic text]

"Or poserai per sempre,Stanco mio cor."

— LEOPARDI.

SILENT, alone! Around the wrinkled earth My lips can feel the final heart-throb creep, While autumn fills the world with solemn mirthThat freights the vine and gilds the ripened sheaves That summer promised; and upon my sleep The guardian oak shall drop its pride of leaves.

Silent, alone! Beneath the sleepless stars This cloven peak shall stand against the moonIn windy solitude, the whispered wars Of waters writhed in silver at my feet Shall hush the verges of the world and croon A sure compassion for my sure defeat.

Silent, alone! The river seeks the sea, The dew-drop on the rose desires its sun! Oh, prisoned Soul, shalt thou alone be free? Shalt thou escape the curse of death and birth And merge thy sorrows in oblivion? Thou, thou alone of all the living earth?

Silent, alone! I know when next the dawnShall cast its vision through the desert sea And find me not, the sword that I have drawn Shall flash between the twilights, and a word Shall praise what I was not but strove to be, Saying: "Behold the mercy of the Lord."