Save insect-swarms that hum in air afloat,

Save that the Cock is crowing, a shrill note,

Startling and shrill as that which roused the dawn.
-Heard in that hour, or when, as now, the nerve
Shrinks from the note1 as from a mis-timed thing,
Oft for a holy warning may it serve,

Charged with remembrance of his sudden sting,
His bitter tears, whose name the Papal Chair
And yon resplendent Church are proud to bear.

IX.

AT ALBANO.*

[THIS Sonnet is founded on simple fact, and was written to enlarge, if possible, the views of those who can see nothing but evil in the intercessions countenanced by the Church of Rome. That they are in many respects lamentably pernicious must be acknowledged; but, on the other hand, they who reflect, while they see and observe, cannot but be struck with instances which will prove that it is a great error to condemn in all cases such mediation as purely idolatrous. This remark bears with especial force upon addresses to the Virgin.]

DAYS passed-and Monte Calvo would not clear

His head from mist; and, as the wind sobbed through Albano's dripping Ilex avenue,†

My dull forebodings in a Peasant's ear

Found casual vent. She said, "Be of good cheer;
Our yesterday's procession did not sue

1 1845.

voice

1842.

Albano, 10 miles south-east of Rome, is a small town and episcopal residence, a favourite autumnal resort of Roman citizens. It is on the site of the ruins of the villa of Pompey. Monte Carlo (the Monte Calvo of this Sonnet) is the ancient Mons Latialis, 3127 feet high. At its summit a convent of Passionist Monks occupies the site of the ancient temple of Jupiter.-ED.

+ The ilex-grove of the Villa Doria is one of the most marked features of Albano.-ED.

In vain; the sky will change to sunny blue,
Thanks to our Lady's grace.' I smiled to hear,
But not in scorn:-the Matron's Faith may lack
The heavenly sanction needed to ensure
Fulfilment; but, we trust, her upward track1
Stops not at this low point, nor wants the lure
Of flowers the Virgin without fear may own,
For by her Son's blest hand the seed was sown.

X.

NEAR Anio's stream,* I spied a gentle Dove
Perched on an olive branch, and heard her cooing
'Mid new-born blossoms that soft airs were wooing,
While all things present told of joy and love.
But restless Fancy left that olive grove
To hail the exploratory Bird renewing

Hope for the few, who, at the world's undoing,
On the great flood were spared to live and move.

O bounteous Heaven! signs true as dove and bough
Brought to the ark are coming evermore,

Given though we seek them not, but, while we plough2
This sea of life without a visible shore,

Do neither promise ask nor grace implore

In what alone is ours, the living Now.3

Even though men seek them not, but, while they plough

* The Anio joins the Tiber north of Rome, flowing from the north-east past Tivoli.-ED.

XI.

FROM THE ALBAN HILLS, LOOKING TOWARDS ROME.

FORGIVE, illustrious Country! these deep sighs,
Heaved less for thy bright plains and hills bestrown

With monuments decayed or overthrown,

For all that tottering stands or prostrate lies,

Than for like scenes in moral vision shown,

Ruin perceived for keener sympathies;

Faith crushed, yet proud of weeds, her gaudy crown;
Virtues laid low, and mouldering energies.

Yet why prolong this mournful strain ?-Fallen Power,
Thy fortunes, twice exalted,* might provoke

Verse to glad notes prophetic of the hour

When thou, uprisen, shalt break thy double yoke,
And enter, with prompt aid from the Most High,
On the third stage of thy great destiny.†

XII.

NEAR THE LAKE OF THRASYMENE.

WHEN here with Carthage Rome to conflict came,‡
An earthquake, mingling with the battle's shock,

* The ancient Classic period, and that of the Renaissance.-ED. This period seems to have been already entered. Compare Mrs Browning's "Poems before Congress," passim.-ED.

The Carthaginian general Hannibal defeated the Roman Consul C. Flaminius, near the lacus Trasimenus, B. c. 217, with a loss of 15,000 men. (See Livy, xxii. 4., &c.)--ED.

Checked not its rage; unfelt the ground did rock,
Sword dropped not, javelin kept its deadly aim.—
Now all is sun-bright peace. Of that day's shame,
Or glory, not a vestige seems to endure,

Save in this Rill that took from blood the name t
Which yet it bears, sweet Stream! as crystal pure.
So may all trace and sign of deeds aloof
From the true guidance of humanity,
Thro' Time and Nature's influence, purify
Their spirit; or, unless they for reproof
Or warning serve, thus let them all, on ground
That gave them being, vanish to a sound.

*

XIII.

NEAR THE SAME LAKE.

FOR action born, existing to be tried,
Powers manifold we have that intervene
To stir the heart that would too closely screen
Her peace from images to pain allied.
What wonder if at midnight, by the side

Of Sanguinetto or broad Thrasymene,‡

The clang of arms is heard, and phantoms glide,

Unhappy ghosts in troops by moonlight seen;

Compare Hannibal, A Historical Drama, by Professor John Nichol, Act ii., sc. 6, p. 107

"Here shall shepherds tell

To passing travellers, when we are dust,

How, by the shores of reedy Thrasymene,

We fought and conquered, while the earthquake shook

The walls of Rome."

+ Sanguinetto.-W. W., 1842.

- ED.

Lake Thrasymene is the largest of the Etrurian lakes, being ten miles

in length and three in breadth.—ED.

And singly thine, O vanquished Chief!* whose corse,
Unburied, lay hid under heaps of slain:

But who is He?—the Conqueror. Would he force
His way to Rome? Ah, no,-round hill and plain
Wandering, he haunts, at fancy's strong command,
This spot-his shadowy death-cup in his hand. †

XIV.

THE CUCKOO AT LAVERNA.‡

MAY 25TH 1837.

[AMONG a thousand delightful feelings connected in my mind with the voice of the cuckoo, there is a personal one which is rather melancholy. I was first convinced that age had rather dulled my hearing, by not being able to catch the sound at the same distance as the younger companions of my walks; and of this failure I had a proof

* C. Flaminius.-ED.

+ After the battle of Lake Thrasymene, Hannibal did not push on to Rome, but turned through the Apennines to Apulia, just as subsequently after the battle of Cannæ he remained inactive.-ED.

Laverna is a corruption of Alverna (now called Alverniac). It is about five or six hours' walk from Camaldoli, on a height of the Apennines, not far from the sources of the Anio. To reach it, "the southern height of the Monte Valterona is ascended as far as the chapel of St Romaiald; then a descent is made to Moggiona, beyond which the path turns to the left, traversing a long and fatiguing succession of gorges and slopes; the path at the base of the mountain is therefore preferable. The market town of Soci in the valley of the Archiano is first reached, then the profound valley of the Corsaline; beyond it rises a blunted cone, on which the path ascends in windings to a stony plain with marshy meadows. Above this rises the abrupt sandstone mass of the Vernia, to the height of 850 feet. On its S.-W. slope, one-third of the way up, and 3906 feet above the sealevel, is seen a wall with small windows, the oldest part of the monastery, built in 1218 by St Francis of Assisi. The church dates from 1284. . . . One of the grandest points is the Penna della Vernia (4796 feet), the ridge of the Vernia, also known as l'Apennino, the 'rugged rock between the sources of the Tiber and Anio,' as it is called by Dante (Paradiso ii. 106). . . . Near the monastery are the Luoghi Santi, a number of grottos and rock-hewn chambers in which St Francis once lived."-(See Baedeker's Northern Italy, p. 425.)

"The Monte Alverno, or Monte della Vernia is situated on the border of Tuscany, near the sources of the Tiber and Anio, not far from the Castle