Mimma Bella - Part 24

XXIV

We walk by Shelley's sea, upon the sands

Where he was cast, whom Air, and Earth, and Brine

Gave up to Flame — their brother more divine —

Who held him in his hundred fluttering hands;

And gaze where in the cloudless heaven stands

Carrara's jagged purple mountain line,

Snow-sprinkled, over tufted woods of pine

That stretch away in bright green sunlit bands.

The children with their sunburnt naked feet,

Ripple-pursued, with laughter and shrill cry

Play in and out, where land and water meet.

So once we thought, O Mimma, thou wouldst play;

Forgetful of how dumb the threat can lie,

As in yon guilty depths, all sun to-day.