Canto III.
16 lines✦
et to the wondrous St. Peter's, and yet to the solemn Rotunda,Mingling with heroes and gods, yet to the Vatican Walls,Yet may we go, and recline, while a whole mighty world seems above us,Gathered and fixed to all time into one roofing supreme;Yet may we, thinking on these things, exclude what is meaner around us;Yet, at the worst of the worst, books and a chamber remain;Yet may we think, and forget, and possess our souls in resistance.--Ah, but away from the stir, shouting, and gossip of war,Where, upon Apennine slope, with the chestnut the oak-trees immingle,Where, amid odorous copse bridle-paths wander and wind,Where, under mulberry-branches, the diligent rivulet sparkles,Or amid cotton and maize peasants their water-works ply,Where, over fig-tree and orange in tier upon tier still repeated,Garden on garden upreared, balconies step to the sky,--Ah, that I were far away from the crowd and the streets of the city,Under the vine-trellis laid, O my beloved, with thee!
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