A Room In The Villa Taverna

Three windows cheerfully poured in the light: One from the east, where o'er the Sabine hills The sun first rose on the great Roman plain, And shining o'er the garden, with its fountains, Vine-trellises, and heaps of rosy bloom, Struck on the glittering laurel-trees, that shone With burnished golden leaves against my lattice. One towards the north, close-screened with a dark wall Of bay and ilex, with tall cypress-shafts, Piercing with graceful spires the limpid air, Like delicate shadows in transparent water. One towards the west—above a sunny green, Where merry black-eyed Tusculan maidens laid The tawny woof to bleach between the rays Of morning light and the bright morning dew. There spread the graceful balustrade, and down Swept the twin flights of steps, with their stone vases, And thick-leaved aloes, like a growth of bronze, To the broad court, where, from a twilight cell, A Naiad, crowned with tufts of trembling green, Sang towards the sunny palace all day long.