IN SUMMER NIGHTS.
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II. BOAT SONG.
Oh, fair the flight, at dead of night,When, up the immeasurable height,The thin cloud wanders with the breezeThat shakes the lustre from the star,That stoops and crisps the darkling seas,And drives the daring keel afarWhere loneliness and silence are!To cleave the crested wave, and markDrowned in its depth the shattered spark;On airy swells to soar, and riseWhere nothing but the foam bell flies;O'er freest tracts of wild delight,Oh, fair the flight, at dead of night!
III. INTERMEZZO.
Sheer below us, as we stand to-night Leaning on the balustrade, the riverFlows in such still darkness that the stars, Painted on its bosom, scarcely quiver.
Far above us, through the violet depths, All those silent stars sweep in their places;
