No sound of wheels or hoof-beat breaks <br />The silence of the summer day, <br />As by the loveliest of all lakes <br />I while the idle hours away. <br /> <br />I pace the leafy colonnade, <br />Where level branches of the plane <br />Above me weave a roof of shade <br />Impervious to the sun and rain. <br /> <br />At times a sudden rush of air <br />Flutters the lazy leaves o'erhead, <br />And gleams of sunshine toss and flare <br />Like torches down the path I tread. <br /> <br />By Somariva's garden gate <br />I make the marble stairs my seat, <br />And hear the water, as I wait, <br />Lapping the steps beneath my feet. <br /> <br />The undulation sinks and swells <br />Along the stony parapets, <br />And far away the floating bells <br />Tinkle upon the fisher's nets. <br /> <br />Silent and slow, by tower and town <br />The freighted barges come and go, <br />Their pendent shadows gliding down <br />By town and tower submerged below. <br /> <br />The hills sweep upward from the shore, <br />With villas scattered one by one <br />Upon their wooded spurs, and lower <br />Bellaggio blazing in the sun. <br /> <br />And dimly seen, a tangled mass <br />Of walls and woods, of light and shade, <br />Stands, beckoning up the Stelvio Pass, <br />Varenna with its white cascade. <br /> <br />I ask myself, Is this a dream? <br />Will it all vanish into air? <br />Is there a land of such supreme <br />And perfect beauty anywhere? <br /> <br />Sweet vision! Do not fade away; <br />Linger, until my heart shall take <br />Into itself the summer day, <br />And all the beauty of the lake; <br /> <br />Linger until upon my brain <br />Is stamped an image of the scene, <br />Then fade into the air again, <br />And be as if thou hadst not been.<br /><br />Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/cadenabbia-lake-of-como-birds-of-passage-flight-the-fourth/
