Page:Pascoli - Paulo Ucello.djvu/14



OR thickly clustering over all the wall Were trees, and flowers, and fruit, and blossom rare; Fig, apple, pear, with pine-tree dark and tall.

And wonderful it was to see how there The almond-blossom still clung gleaming white, While here already hung the golden pear.

Against the sky tall laurels rose in sight. While heart-shaped ivy, trailing from the bough, Covered a welling spring, as dark as night.

Beyond, a hill sloped gently up, its brow Or with red clusters of the vine aglow, Or black with new-turned earth beneath the plough.

Willows, beside the stream, were winding slow; Long cypresses climbed up the rocky steep: Here idle lay a scythe, and there a hoe.

And here the fresh-turned sods were furrowed deep And straight, between thick hedges set four-square; While there a sea of corn stretched in a golden sweep.

And, yet more wonderful! that sturdy pair Of oxen yoked, who yonder broke the clay, Were not as big as the swift-footed hare

That from the threatening ploughman fled away. 10