Page:Poems Rossetti.djvu/340

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312
PASTIME.
PASTIME.
A BOAT amid the ripples, drifting, rocking,
Two idle people, without pause or aim;
While in the ominous west there gathers darkness
  Flushed with flame.

A haycock in a hayfield backing, lapping,
Two drowsy people pillowed round about;
While in the ominous west across the darkness
  Flame leaps out.

Better a wrecked life than a life so aimless,
Better a wrecked life than a life so soft;
The ominous west glooms thundering, with its fire
  Lit aloft.


"ITALIA, IO TI SALUTO!"
TO come back from the sweet South, to the North
Where I was born, bred, look to die;
Come back to do my day's work in its day,
   Play out my play—
Amen, amen, say I.

To see no more the country half my own,
Nor hear the half familiar speech,