Genoa and the Mediterranean (March, 1887)

Thomas Hardy 1840 (Stinsford) – 1928 (Dorchester, Dorset)



O epic-famed, god-haunted Central Sea,
   Heave careless of the deep wrong done to thee
When from Torino's track I saw thy face first flash on me.

   And multimarbled Genova the Proud,
   Gleam all unconscious how, wide-lipped, up-browed,
I first beheld thee clad--not as the Beauty but the Dowd.

   Out from a deep-delved way my vision lit
   On housebacks pink, green, ochreous--where a slit
Shoreward 'twixt row and row revealed the classic blue through it.

   And thereacross waved fishwives' high-hung smocks,
   Chrome kerchiefs, scarlet hose, darned underfrocks;
Since when too oft my dreams of thee, O Queen, that frippery mocks:

   Whereat I grieve, Superba! . . . Afterhours
   Within Palazzo Doria's orange bowers
Went far to mend these marrings of thy soul-subliming powers.

   But, Queen, such squalid undress none should see,
   Those dream-endangering eyewounds no more be
Where lovers first behold thy form in pilgrimage to thee.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

44 sec read
115

Quick analysis:

Scheme AAA BBB CCC AAX DDD AAA
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 953
Words 145
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, was not a Scottish Minister, not a Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland nor a Professor of Eccesiastical History at Edinburgh University. more…

All Thomas Hardy poems | Thomas Hardy Books

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