Round purple peaks

It sails, and seeks

Blue inlets and their crystal creeks, Where high rocks throw, Through deeps below,

A duplicated golden glow.

Far, vague, and dim,
The mountains swim;
While on Vesuvius' misty brim,
With outstretched hands,
The gray smoke stands
O'erlooking the volcanic lands.

Here Ischia smiles
O'er liquid miles;

And yonder, bluest of the isles,
Calm Capri waits,

Her sapphire gates

Beguiling to her bright estates..

"Who 'll care for me when I am dead and gone?

Not many now-and, surely, soon, not

one;

And should I sing like an immortal Muse,
Men, if they read the line,
Read for their good, not mine;
What is the use?

"And song, if passable, is doomed to pass Common, though sweet as the new-scythed grass.

Of human deeds and thoughts, Time bears

no news,

That, flying, he can lack,

Else they would break his back.
What is the uso?

"Spirit of Beauty, breath of golden lyres,

Perpetual tremble of immortal wires,
Divinely torturing rapture of the Muse,
Conspicuous wretchedness-
Thou starry, sole success —
What is the use?

"Doth not all struggle tell, upon its brow,
That he who makes it is not easy now,
But hopes to be? Vain Hope, that dost
abuse,

Coquetting with thine eyes,
And fooling him who sighs!
What is the use?

"Go, pry the lintels of the pyramids, Lift the old kings' mysterious coffin lids: This dust was theirs, whose names these stones confuse, —

Down in the bleak December bay
The ghostly vessel stands away;
Her spars and halyards white with ice,
Under the dark December skies.
A hundred souls, in company,
Have left the vessel pensively,-
Have touched the frosty desert there,
And touched it with the knees of prayer.
And now the day begins to dip,
The night begins to lower

Over the bay, and over the ship
Mayflower.

Neither the desert nor the sea
Imposes rites: their prayers are free;
Danger and toil the wild imposes,
And thorns must grow before the roses.
And who are these?—and what distress
The savage-acred wilderness

On mother, maid, and child, may bring,
Beseems then for a fearful thing;