THE PINE FOREST OF THE CASCINE NEAR PISA FIRST DRAFT OF "TO JANE: THE INVITATION, THE RECOLLECTION" DEAREST, best and brightest, Come away, To the woods and to the fields! Which, like thee to those in sorrow, The eldest of the hours of Spring, And the banks all bare and rude The Pine Forest of the Cascine near Pisa. Published by Mrs. Shelley, 1824. Radiant Sister of the Day, Round stems that never kiss the sun Now the last day of many days, For now the Earth has changed its face, A frown is on the Heaven's brow. We wandered to the Pine Forest That skirts the Ocean's foam, The whispering waves were half asleep, It seemed as if the day were one Sent from beyond the skies, 30 stems, Mrs. Shelley, 1824 || stones, Mrs. Shelley, 18391. Which shed to earth above the sun We paused amid the pines that stood Tortured by storms to shapes as rude How calm it was the silence there By such a chain was bound That even the busy woodpecker Made stiller by her sound The inviolable quietness; The breath of peace we drew With its soft motion made not less The calm that round us grew. It seemed that from the remotest seat A spirit interfused around, A thinking silent life, To momentary peace it bound Our mortal nature's strife; And still it seemed the centre of Was one whose being filled with love Were not the crocuses that Under that ilex-tree grew As beautiful in scent and hue We stood beside the pools that lie And each seemed like a sky A purple firmament of light, Which in the dark earth lay, More boundless than the depth of night, In which the massy forests grew Like one beloved the scene had lent To the dark water's breast Its every leaf and lineament With that clear truth expressed; There lay far glades and neighboring lawn, And through the dark green crowd The white sun twinkling like the dawn Under a speckled cloud. Sweet views, which in our world above Were imaged by the water's love And all was interfused beneath Until a wandering wind crept by, For thou art good and dear and kind, But less of peace in S's mind, ORPHEUS A NOT far from hence. From yonder pointed hill, Orpheus. Published by Garnett, 1862, and dated, 1820. Revised and enlarged by Rossetti, 1870. 2 oaks, Rossetti || oak, Garnett. |