Cities of Northern and Central Italy: Florence, Siena, and other towns of Tuscany and Umbria

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G. Routledge & sons, 1876
 

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Page 141 - Ed io a lui: Io mi son un che, quando Amore spira, noto, ed a quel modo Che detta dentro, vo significando. Che il Notajo, e Guittone, e me ritenne Di qua dal dolce stil nuovo ch' i
Page 223 - So on he fares, and to the border comes Of Eden, where delicious Paradise, Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green, As with a rural mound, the champaign head Of a steep wilderness...
Page 206 - Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, Behind him cast ; the broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views At evening from the top of Fesole Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe.
Page 22 - There, too, the Goddess loves in stone, and fills * The air around with beauty ; we inhale The ambrosial aspect, which, beheld, instils Part of its immortality ; the veil Of heaven is half undrawn ; within the pale We stand, and in that form and face behold What mind can make, when Nature's self would And to the fond idolaters of old [fail ; Envy the innate flash which such a soul could mould : L.
Page 191 - In a villa overhanging the towers of Florence, on the steep slope of that lofty hill crowned by the mother city the ancient Fiesole, in gardens which Tully might have envied, with Ficino, Landino and Politian at his side, he delighted his hours of leisure with the beautiful visions of Platonic philosophy, for which the summer stillness of an Italian sky appears the most congenial accompaniment.
Page 142 - Come back in sleep, for in the life Where thou art not We find none like thee. Time and strife And the world's lot Move thee no more; but love at least And reverent heart May move thee, royal and released Soul, as thou art.
Page 223 - Insuperable height of loftiest shade, Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching palm, A sylvan scene, and, as the ranks ascend Shade above shade, a woody theatre Of stateliest view.
Page 25 - ON THE MEDUSA OF LEONARDO DA VINCI, IN THE FLORENTINE GALLERY. I. IT lieth, gazing on the midnight sky, Upon the cloudy mountain peak supine ; Below, far lands are seen tremblingly ; Its horror and its beauty are divine. Upon its lips and eyelids seems to lie Loveliness like a shadow, from which shine, Fiery and lurid, struggling underneath, The agonies of anguish and of death.
Page 141 - O frate, issa vegg'io, diss'egli, il nodo Che il Notaio, e Guttone, e me ritenne Di qua dal dolce stil nuovo ch'i' odo. Io veggio ben come le vostre penne Diretro al dittator sen vanno strette, Che delle nostre certo non avvenne.
Page 113 - Tis lost in shade ; yet, like the basilisk, It fascinates, and is intolerable. His mien is noble, most majestical ! Then most so, when the distant choir is heard At morn or eve...

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