18.06.2007, 09:23
Impression on Returning to England
In just accordance with attentive sight,
Through airy space and round our planet ball,
The inorganic world is voiced with light,
And colours are the words it speaks withal.
Thus has my eye had glad experience
Of that most perfect utterance and clear tone
With which all visible things address the sense,
In lands retiring from the northern zone.
But oh! in what poor language, faintly caught,
Do the old features of my England greet
Her stranger-son--how powerless, how unmeet
For the free vision Italy had taught
What to expect from nature; I must scan
Her face, I fear, no more, and look alone to man.
In just accordance with attentive sight,
Through airy space and round our planet ball,
The inorganic world is voiced with light,
And colours are the words it speaks withal.
Thus has my eye had glad experience
Of that most perfect utterance and clear tone
With which all visible things address the sense,
In lands retiring from the northern zone.
But oh! in what poor language, faintly caught,
Do the old features of my England greet
Her stranger-son--how powerless, how unmeet
For the free vision Italy had taught
What to expect from nature; I must scan
Her face, I fear, no more, and look alone to man.